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Eric Bieniemy's stay in Chicago could be a short one — the Chiefs are eyeing a reunion with the Bears running backs coach.The Chiefs requested an interview with him for their offensive coordinator position, per multiple reports Monday morning. There's not much the Chiefs need to find out about Bieniemy — head coach Andy Reid employed him from 2013-17 as running backs coach and 2018-22 as offensive coordinator. Bieniemy would take the place of Matt Nagy, whose contract is up and who could land a head coaching job during this cycle.In Kansas City, the head coach — and not the offensive coordinator — calls the plays.Bieniemy joined the Bears a year ago, citing his familiarity with general manager Ryan Poles and president/CEO Kevin Warren from his stints in Kansas City and Minnesota, respectively. The Bears were thrilled with how Bieniemy developed their running backs this year. The Bears averaged 102 rushing yards per game in 2024, the eighth-fewest in the NFL. They ran for 144.5 this year, the third-best average in the league. Under Bieniemy, D'Andre Swift has been more disciplined in not trying to hit home runs on every carry, while rookie seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai developed into a reliable option."This is a very demanding coach," coach Ben Johnson said last month. "He’s always on those guys. I think that’s a good thing, I really do. I think as much as they might not like it at times, overall, it just … you can’t let up when you have a coach like that. I think it’s brought the best out of that entire room."

Illinois leads the nation with evidence-based equal pay laws like the salary history ban, salary transparency and the collection of pay data. But to fully realize pay equity in Illinois — and close the stubborn wage gaps faced by women and people of color — we must continue to press ahead with data-informed civic, worker, advocacy, legislative and employer action.Recent analysis by the Project of Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sheds light on how pay disparities show up throughout Illinois among employers with 100 or more employees. Thanks to Illinois’ forward-thinking pay data collection law, we have data to show where progress is being made and where we lag. And what it shows is while we are making some progress for people in the highest income brackets, for people of color the wage gap is alarmingly wide. This unequal distribution reflects the realities of today’s economy: a booming stock market alongside record levels of food insecurity, the rich getting richer and those already struggling falling further behind. Black worker — men and women — unemployment is far higher than the national average. When 46.6% of Illinois families lack the resources needed to fully participate in today's economy, any wage gap is too large. Over time, that gap is the difference between stable housing and insecurity, career advancement or being stuck in a minimum wage job, and getting ahead or getting left behind.True pay equity is about more than whether two people of different genders or races are paid equally for the same work. It’s about equal opportunities, which means tackling occupational segregation, the lopsided responsibility for caregiving, and uneven access to the education that gets further out of reach for the people who would most benefit. And yes, it also means making sure companies are paying employees fairly and reporting that data to the Illinois Department of Labor — and sharing it with the public.Regularly receiving this data ensures we can clearly see the impact of policy and identify the gaps requiring action. With the federal administration dismantling, diminishing and devaluing data, states like Illinois need our own evidence to guide sound decision-making, enforcement, outreach and employer support.Right now, that evidence shows we need to keep our foot on the gas for pay equity.Sharmili Majmudar, executive vice president of policy, programs and research, Women Employed Give us your takeSend letters to the editor to letters@suntimes.com. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words. Study on school attendance merits scrutiny The recent Sun-Times article on findings by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research on student attendance and teacher relationships raises important questions, but it also deserves more careful interpretation.The study reports correlations between student attendance and measures of teacher-student trust and school climate. However, a basic logical limitation should be acknowledged: students must already be attending school in order to form relationships with teachers and to report on them in surveys. Attendance, in other words, is not just an outcome in this analysis — it is a prerequisite. This makes it difficult to determine whether stronger teacher relationships improve attendance, or whether students who attend more regularly are simply more likely to develop and report positive relationships.In addition, the way the findings are presented publicly risks overstating teacher responsibility for attendance. While teachers play an important role in students’ school experiences, attendance is shaped by many factors beyond the classroom, including family circumstances, student choice, transportation, health, neighborhood safety and district-level policies. Responsibility for attendance is…

A man accused in a murder-for-hire plot aimed at U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino is set to face trial Tuesday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse — for now.U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow handed down a damaging ruling Thursday that seemed to bar much of the evidence prosecutors planned to offer against Juan Espinoza Martinez. But the feds have shown no sign of backing down.So the first criminal trial tied to “Operation Midway Blitz” is still on track to begin with jury selection Tuesday inside a 17th-floor courtroom at the downtown courthouse. Related Bovino murder-for-hire case on thin ice after judge bars gang evidence from trial It’s a major test for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office. Trump administration officials have argued repeatedly that drug cartels and street gangs have placed bounties on the heads of federal officials involved in immigration enforcement, including Bovino.But the administration’s credibility has taken a serious hit — even being questioned by federal judges. One found that Bovino lied about his deployment of tear gas in Little Village last October. And of 31 people charged in non-immigration cases tied to the campaign in Chicago, charges have been dropped against 14. No one has been convicted.Now, even though prosecutors once alleged Espinoza Martinez was a "ranking member of the Latin Kings," they say they won't try to prove his membership in the gang to a jury.Key questionsEspinoza Martinez's trial is expected to be swift. He faces one murder-for-hire count, and prosecutors have signaled they’ll call just a few witnesses. Bovino is not among them.Lefkow, 82, is set to preside over the trial. President Bill Clinton appointed her to the bench in 2000. A litigant murdered Lefkow’s mother and husband in 2005, prompting her to become an advocate for judicial security. She also handled the 2010 trial of notorious Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. Senior U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, poses Monday, July 27, 2020, for a portrait in her Chicago home. In 2005, Lefkow returned from work to find her husband and mother shot dead in the basement of her Chicago home. Lefkow is now presiding over the first trial tied to Operation Midway Blitz.AP Espinoza Martinez’s lawyers, Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer, have described their client as a “working man with deep roots” in the community and an “unblemished record.” They say he worked at his brother’s construction company for a decade, took his children to soccer games, and has never been convicted of a crime. Now he’s been in federal custody since Oct. 6. Related Feds won’t try to prove gang membership for man charged with putting a bounty on Greg Bovino The case is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan, the second-highest ranking federal prosecutor in the Chicago region, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Minje Shin. They’ve said the key question will be whether messages about Bovino sent by Espinoza Martinez to an unnamed recipient “were real” to Espinoza Martinez, and whether he was taking a murder-for-hire plot “seriously.”Speaking to the judge Jan. 7, prosecutors also said it would be important to show Espinoza Martinez’s “affinity” or relationship to the Latin Kings.“What we must prove is whether he intended that a murder-for-hire occurred,” Shin told the judge. “And that absolutely bears on whether his relationship to the Latin Kings is real.”Crucial evidence barredBut Thursday, a little more than a week after Shin made that comment, Lefkow barred from the trial any testimony tying Espinoza Martinez to a gang, even through his “affinity” for one.“Without evidence showing that [Espinoza Martinez] is a member of the Latin Kings or that the Latin Kings instructed [Espinoza Martinez] to send the alleged murder-for-hire information, the prejudicial nature of such testimony outweighs any probative value,” Lefkow wrote.That ruling prompted an emergency hearing three hours later. Yonan told the judge “you cannot remove the Latin Kings from…

Nothing ruins a Las Vegas sex party like a phone call from your spouse in which she explains that she’s just discovered a lump in her breast.Sex is messy, complicated; it is true for humans and, it turns out, for puppets too.They have hang-ups. They’ve got saggy bits. They enjoy kinks. When: Jan. 26-31Where: Začek McVay Theatre, The Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.Tickets: $49Info: chicagopuppetfest.org “I suppose the message is: penises are OK; we should talk about [sex] more; and everyone’s doing it and it’s all weird,” said Mark Down, the co-writer and co-director of “The Sex Lives of Puppets,” part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (Jan. 21-Feb. 1 at various locations across the city). “Sex Lives” runs Jan. 26-31 at The Biograph’s Začek-McVay Mainstage, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.This year’s festival brings 80 or so performers to Chicago from across the United States and around the globe.“The ‘Sex Lives’ is very fun, very accessible. … I would challenge anyone who has hesitations to come to any of our shows, and they will see something they have never seen in their lives,” said festival founder, Blair Thomas. Dale Wylde, Isobel Griffiths, Mark Down and Briony O’Callaghan from “The Sex Lives of Puppets.” Blind Summit Theatre was working on other shows and during breaks in rehearsals the puppets would talk about sex, making the puppeteers laugh, then they’d go back to rehearsals and it would be boring.Charlie Lyne What makes “Sex Lives” different than, say, the bawdy puppet sex scene in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s 2004 film “Team America: World Police,” is that the show is loosely based on the lives of real, ordinary people.It is improvised, but many of the candidly carnal conversations between the puppets originated with a survey of modern-day British attitudes about sex, done by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, including one participant who attended an orgy in Sin City without his spouse.“It’s amazing how rare the sort of husband and wife and three kids is in the survey …,” said Down, chatting with the Chicago Sun-Times from a flat in Vilnius, Lithuania, where his partner is a diplomat on a six-month assignment. “When you go straight in on sex, what comes out really quickly is that [many] people are living with second husbands, second partners. It’s a massively complicated sort of web.” Meryl is one of the puppets speaking candidly about sex in “The Sex Lives of Puppets.” There isn’t actually that much sex in the 1 1/2 -hour show. Much of it is puppet couples talking about sex — like the old-married-couple interludes in the 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” leading to sweet, often tender moments.Charlie Lyne There isn’t actually that much sex in the 1 1/2 -hour show. Much of it is puppet couples talking about sex — like the old-married-couple interludes in the 1989 romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” leading to sweet, often tender moments, Down said.“There is a couple that have sex, but they are kind of in the middle of an interview when they do it. So it’s like a couple’s therapy that turns into a sex scene,” he said.The puppets aren’t “anatomically complete,” except those in the shadow porno sequence of the show, which Down described as “absolutely juvenile.”Down, who is in his late 50s, has had a long and distinguished career in the puppet world. The artistic director of the London-based Blind Summit Theatre company, Down conceived puppets for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, for the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Opera, among other venues.It's an unusual life journey for someone who originally completed training to become a medical doctor and worked in an emergency room.“Then I went to drama school,” he said.But why puppets having and talking about sex?It was an idea Blind Summit developed not long after the pandemic ended. The company was working on other shows and during breaks in rehearsals: “The puppets were all talking…