Paul DeJong ranks among the top 20 shortstops in several major-league defensive categories since 2018.

The Chicago White Sox have been searching for steady gloves up the middle, and they officially added to that collection Tuesday by signing DeJong to a one-year, $1.75 million contract. Reports of the deal first surfaced Nov. 21.

DeJong, who went to Antioch High School and Illinois State, has a .229/.299/.417 career slash line with 120 doubles, 116 home runs, 344 RBIs and 341 runs in 729 games during seven seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (2017-23), Toronto Blue Jays (2023) and San Francisco Giants (2023).

He had a combined .207 average with 13 doubles, 14 home runs, 38 RBIs and 41 runs in 112 games between the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Giants in 2023.

The Cardinals traded DeJong to the Blue Jays on Aug. 1. He was released Aug. 21, signed with the Giants on Aug. 23 and released again Sept. 21.

DeJong, 30, finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2017 after slashing .285/.325/.532 with 25 home runs and 65 RBIs in 108 games. In 2019 he earned an All-Star selection — finishing with career highs in home runs (30) and RBIs (78) in 159 games — and was a finalist for the NL Gold Glove Award.

Since the start of the 2018 season, DeJong ranks third among major-league shortstops in ultimate zone rating (28.4), sixth in defensive runs saved (41), 14th in defensive runs above average (33.1) and 18th in outs above average (14).

Earlier this month, Sox general manager Chris Getz discussed the team’s desire to improve defensively.

“It’s just having steady defenders across the diamond and all spots in the outfield as well,” Getz said at the GM meetings. “It allows our pitchers to do a lot more and be more efficient and keep pitch counts down just by attacking the zone, knowing their defense can make plays.”

Since then, the Sox made a six-player trade with the Atlanta Braves that included acquiring infielders Nicky Lopez and Braden Shewmake. Lopez, who went to Naperville Central, made two errors in 277 chances in 2023. He has played second base, shortstop and third.

The trade with the Braves and DeJong’s signing come after the Sox declined their 2024 option on shortstop Tim Anderson, making the two-time All-Star a free agent.

The Sox will continue to monitor the progress of their top prospect, shortstop Colson Montgomery. The 21-year-old finished the 2023 season with Double-A Birmingham and also participated in the Arizona Fall League.

“I will say that whether it be feedback from other organizations, the coaches on the Glendale (Ariz.) team and certainly my personal assessment, it was an impressive Fall League for him,” Getz said during a Nov. 17 video conference call. “What he did in the box, the decisions he makes, the temperament, the under-control operation that he has really stands out.

“And then defensively, he was a solid defender at shortstop. He was certainly one of the players that was talked about.”

In Tuesday’s corresponding move on the 40-man roster, the Sox designated Adam Haseley for assignment. The outfielder went 8-for-36 (.222) with two doubles, two RBIs and six runs in 28 games for the Sox in 2023.

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Bruce Weber transitioned from a 24-year college basketball coaching career to a Big Ten Network commentator two seasons ago. In his new role, he has gotten to know Gophers head coach Ben Johnson, with inside looks at a few practices.

“I really like Ben,” Weber told the Pioneer Press at Big Ten Media Days in October. “He’s a great person. He cares about the players, but, as we all know, you have to win games.”

Johnson has not won nearly enough Big Ten games across his first two seasons at his alma mater. The Gophers are a combined 6-33 (.153 winning percentage) in consecutive last-place finishes in the conference.

Improvement is a must as the Gophers (5-2) open Big Ten play at Ohio State (6-1) at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Johnson’s third team at the U has gotten off to a rocky start to nonconference play. The Gophers have beaten five weaker opponents and lost both games against stronger competition.

Minnesota gave up a 20-point lead in a 70-68 loss Nov. 16 to Missouri, a projected middle-of-the-road squad in the Southeastern Conference. Then last Sunday, the U had a season-high 18 turnovers in a 76-58 loss to San Francisco, a team picked to finish third in the West Coast Conference.

Gophers Athletics Director Mark Coyle, a member of the Division I men’s basketball committee, said Missouri is an NCAA tournament-caliber team.

“I took away that (Missouri) game, like our fans, frustrated that we lost,” Coyle said on KFAN on Nov. 18. “… But what gave me hope is that I get to watch really good basketball in the month of March and we are playing above the rim now. We have dudes that can play above the rim. I think we are more athletic, and we have depth. I think Ben was playing eight or nine kids that game. That is only going to help us as we move forward. Again, it’s one game in November. We’ve still got a long way to go, and I’m confident Ben and the team will learn.”

Johnson has been trying to establish a winning culture — especially as losses keep piling up. In preseason, he set up a “winners week,” when players competed in everything from conditioning workouts to practice drills.

In the 96-64 blowout of New Orleans on Thursday, Johnson chalked up another win in how his team extended an 18-point halftime lead to a complete blowout. It was something that lacked in previous victories in November.

When Weber started coaching at Southern Illinois in 1998, the word “brand” wasn’t used to describe programs’ style like it is today. “I hate to use that word because it’s cliche to say ‘brand,’ but (former Purdue coach Gene) Keady 40 years ago created a brand,” Weber said.

So, what is the Gophers’ identity under Johnson?

“Hopefully, in time, just being able to play a multitude of ways,” Johnson said before the Missouri loss. “Whether that is big, whether that is small, whether that is fast, whether that is slow. I think we are still very much a work in progress. But come league time, come January, hopefully we can be a combination of those things. That is kind of the blueprint.”

Weber recalled how he felt Keady would change with the times — even if that wasn’t clear by appearances.

“Whenever you saw him, he was mean, tough, and people were afraid of him,” Weber said. “He changes? He did. He was great with the kids and would talk to them. He changed basketball-wise.”

Johnson has worked to incorporate a faster offensive tempo this season, with speedy point guard Elijah Hawkins at the helm. It has led to a high turnover rate this season, but Johnson and Hawkins liked the pace in the win over New Orleans. Now, they must keep it up.

Johnson has been stressing the need to hit singles instead of swinging for the fences on certain plays. He also has been emphasizing that it’s more important to go from zero to 60 mph than careen from 60 to 100.

Weber said the Gophers’ clear strength is in the post with all-Big Ten-caliber junior forward Dawson Garcia and improving sophomore center Pharrel Payne. The Gophers have been starting a smaller lineup with Garcia at center, but might bring Payne back into the starting five in Big Ten play.

“The whole things comes down to the guard play,” said Weber, who made 13 total NCAA tournament appearances, including six in nine years at Illinois. “Little Elijah’s got a chance, and he can make some plays. If he can take care of the ball, they have big guys that can score.”

Weber, who coached 10 years at Kansas State, said the nightly challenge of leagues such as the Big Ten and Big XII is “why you coach. But it also makes for a lack of sleep because you are trying to figure things out.”

After the New Orleans win Thursday, Johnson said he was immediately going back to work to prepare for the Buckeyes.

To show improvement in Year 3, the climb appears to be steep, with few footholds. Minnesota went 2-17 in league play last year to finish 14th. Ohio State finished 13th at 5-15, and the two teams that tied for 11th, Wisconsin and Nebraska, each went 9-11.

To make a climb, players such as freshman guard Cam Christie and junior transfer guard Mike Mitchell will need to knock down 3-pointers. Joshua Ola-Joseph and Braeden Carrington will need to show investments during their freshman seasons are paying off during their sophomore campaigns. Previously injured forwards Isaiah Ihnen and Parker Fox will need to contribute.

Weber is a fan of Christie, a four-star recruit from Arlington Heights, Ill. Christie signed with the Gophers, in part, to play in the Big Ten.

“It’s widely known as one of the best conferences in the country, playing the best teams day in and day out,” Christie said. “There is no team that you can go in there and know it’s going to be a cakewalk. It’s going to be a battle, a physical battle, a mental battle.”

Johnson knows it will take his and his players’ best on a game-by-game basis.

“Everything is elevated,” Johnson said of the Big Ten and the opener at Ohio State. “Another road game, which gets heightened. I think our thing is: This game can’t mean more to them for whatever reason. It can’t. We’ve got to go in there with as much at stake as they do, with that urgency. I think that is the biggest thing. …

“You’ve got to go in there with a certain amount of rage to you.”

The barrage of Chicago Bears takeaways started with 11 minutes, 43 seconds to play in the second quarter Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs lofted a pass to wide receiver Jordan Addison on the left sideline, and Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson leaped into the air to pull it down.

Safety Jaquan Brisker was next. A Dobbs pass in the second quarter bounced off Addison’s hands, and Brisker dived forward to pick it off.

Then it was linebacker T.J. Edwards’ turn. Johnson broke up a third-quarter Dobbs pass to K.J. Osborn, and Edwards hopped as he caught it.

Finally, nickel back Kyler Gordon jumped in on the action in the fourth quarter, diving to pull in a football that defensive tackle Justin Jones nearly secured himself before he bobbled it.

When the Bears were done, they had intercepted Dobbs four times to help drive a 12-10 victory, their first in the NFC North under coach Matt Eberflus. In the last two games against the Detroit Lions and Vikings, the Bears have eight takeaways, including seven interceptions.

“We’re playing good coverage on the back end,” Johnson said. “The rush is getting there, causing the quarterback to make some bad decisions. Rush and coverage, coverage and rush, it all goes together.”

The Bears had nine quarterback hits and two sacks against Dobbs, who threw for 185 yards, with new defensive end Montez Sweat responsible for 1 1/2 sacks.

The night, of course, wasn’t perfect. The Bears allowed the Vikings to march 77 yards for the game’s only touchdown when Dobbs hit tight end T.J. Hockenson over the middle for a 17-yard score with 5:58 to play in the fourth quarter. That put the Vikings ahead 10-9.

But when Bears quarterback Justin Fields fumbled on the ensuing drive, giving the ball back to the Vikings, the Bears forced a three-and-out to give Fields a chance to lead the winning drive. Kicker Cairo Santos made a 30-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to win it.

That stop was big for a Bears defense that allowed the Lions to come back from 12 points down to win in Week 11.

Eberflus, whose team also blew a 21-point lead against the Denver Broncos earlier this season, hopes that finally being able to finish could have lasting effects.

“We came out after last week, we wanted to do the same thing but just stick a knife in it,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “We wanted to go four quarters. It wasn’t pretty. We have some things to clean up on that touchdown drive, but overall defense, I feel like we played lights out.”

For the second time this season against the Vikings — who won the first meeting 19-13 — points were at a premium. The Bears scored just three points off the four takeaways.

They punted after the Johnson and Brisker interceptions in the first half. Santos made a 55-yard field goal after Edwards’ pick. And Fields lost a fumble after Gordon’s interception.

But Johnson said the defensive players didn’t let that affect their mindset as they built momentum against Dobbs, who entered the night with six interceptions in 11 games.

“They don’t score, they don’t win,” Johnson said. “We never flinched. Just put it on us. At the end of the day, you can’t win a game if you don’t score. So that’s our mentality every time we step on the field.”

Beyond the takeaways there were other big plays, including when Gordon pushed Hockenson out of bounds 1 yard short of a first down on fourth-and-7 on the first drive of the third quarter. Johnson, who lamented missed interceptions against the Lions, nearly had a second pick Monday.

The Vikings totaled 242 yards of offense, their second-lowest output of the season behind the 220 yards in the first meeting with the Bears.

“Defense creates momentum in a lot of different ways,” Eberflus said. “They do it through third-down stops, they do it through big hits and they do it through taking the ball away. That’s what we always preach to the guys, and they did all three things today.”

Monday’s performance came against a Vikings offense missing starting quarterback Kirk Cousins and star wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who are out with Achilles and hamstring injuries, respectively.

But that doesn’t damper the Bears’ hope that the last two games have started a turnaround for the defense.

During training camp in August, the Bears spoke highly of what the unit could do. But dealing with injuries to multiple key players, they entered Monday night’s game with just 13 takeaways, tied for 24th in the NFL.

Now they feel like they’re building themselves back into what they can be.

“We’re getting into our groove, into what each of our players do (best),” Gordon said. “We’re playmakers, so once we get in our groove, the chemistry keeps building, it’s special.”

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On his final pass of a challenging night, Justin Fields knew he had one responsibility, one obligation to his team, one chance to author the ending of Monday’s tense and sloppy game with the Minnesota Vikings.

Make a damn play.

Just make one more play. Of any kind.

That was all Fields needed to do, even with all the pressure that was intensifying — from the Vikings defense, from his own miscues earlier in the fourth quarter, from the weight of so many previous games the Chicago Bears had a chance to win but couldn’t.

Just make a play.

After doing so many things wrong, after again stumbling to the edge of the cliff in a winnable game, the Bears had their final chance to steal a win at U.S. Bank Stadium. The ball was in Fields’ hands near midfield with his team down a point and the clock ticking inside a minute.

On third-and-10, Fields kept his nerves calm and his eyes up. A seven-man protection stonewalled a four-man Minnesota rush. And with the Vikings bailing backward in zone coverage, Fields saw exactly what he wanted — top receiver DJ Moore breaking crisply toward the middle of the field and left alone on his route.

There it was. The play was right there.

“I’m just locked in,” Fields said. “There’s no feeling. It’s just straight tunnel vision locked into that moment.”

From his 43-yard line, Fields ripped a fastball into a huge window. Moore, his eyes as big as dinner plates, couldn’t believe that moment of truth had unfolded so perfectly as Vikings cornerback Camryn Bynum stuck with Tyler Scott on a corner route.

“They left me wide open,” Moore said. “I don’t think that was a smart choice.”

Fields’ pass hit Moore’s hands, numbers high, at the Vikings 26 with no defenders within 4 yards of him. He barreled ahead for 13 more yards to finish the 36-yard completion, positioning the Bears to seal their 12-10 victory.

Three clock-killing kneel-downs followed, and with 10 seconds remaining, Bears kicker Cairo Santos nailed a 30-yard field goal — his fourth of the night — to finish the triumph.

Fields noted that final completion came on a play the Bears offense has felt confident running since the summer.

“We’ve hit that in practice multiple times on our defense and in the two-minute situation,” Fields said. “So it’s just going back to those banked reps and everybody succeeding when we needed to.”

Moore said he was about 10 yards into his route when he got a sense he was about to spring open.

“I was like, ‘Something ain’t right about this,’” he said. “I looked up and was like, ‘Shoot. There’s nobody in the middle. Well, this deep-in is going to be in the middle.’ We connected on it and the rest is history.”

This stands as one of Fields’ most significant moments in the seven games he has won as the Bears starting quarterback.

Technically he entered Monday with two career game-winning drives. But the most recent — in Week 3 last season — was a four-play, 0-yard go-ahead field-goal drive set up by a Roquan Smith interception in a 23-20 win over the Houston Texans.

Two weeks before that, he finished a go-ahead 84-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter of a 19-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. But heroics in the final minutes? Fields had been late-game tragic far more often than he had produced late-game magic.

Monday’s game seemed headed for a similar and familiar result, too, after Fields lost two fumbles in crucial moments.

The first, on a strip-sack by Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, prevented the Bears from increasing their lead to two scores with less than 10 minutes remaining. That turnover came four snaps after rookie running back Roschon Johnson had the football punched from his hands. Fortunately for the Bears, center Lucas Patrick recovered that one.

Said Fields: “I said to (Johnson), ‘Ball security is the most important thing right now.’ Then (a few) plays later I fumble.”

The Vikings turned that turnover into the night’s only touchdown with a 77-yard drive punctuated by a 17-yard T.J. Hockenson reception from Joshua Dobbs. That gave the Vikings their first lead.

On the Bears’ next possession, Fields fumbled again, this time at the end of a 6-yard scramble when he was popped by safety Josh Metellus. Anthony Barr dived on it.

Vikings ball. Again. That felt crushing.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Fields said. “I’m not going to lie to you.”

No matter what was going on in Fields’ stomach, he knew his brain had to be cleared. Especially with the Bears defense doing its part, forcing a quick three-and-out and getting the ball back in 59 seconds.

Suddenly the Bears’ seven penalties were irrelevant. The missed opportunities, turning four takeaways by the defense into only three points, didn’t matter. The offense’s sputtering rhythm for much of the night didn’t have to be fatal.

Fields wanted another shot with his concentration dialed in.

“I really just wanted to prove to my teammates that I had their back,” he said. “When you do get that opportunity at the end of the game, everything (that happened) before that is out the window.”

On the first pass of the final drive, Fields extended the play, got outside the pocket and found Moore for 16 yards. He added two runs for 13 yards, then had two helter-skelter incompletions before his longest and most meaningful pass of the night: the one to Moore for 36.

Fields made a play, which helped the Bears produce their most meaningful win of the season.

“(Fields) had a great bounce-back,” said Moore, who finished with 11 catches for 114 yards. “He had the fumbles, but he came back like a true leader does, like somebody on the rise as a young quarterback. He just blocked that out and made that throw.”

Added tight end Cole Kmet: “That’s what this league is. Despite whatever else happens, you have to stay in it. Stay in it, stay in it, stay in it. Then you have to find a way to win at the end.”

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who had one of the Bears’ four interceptions, watched that last drive and the final Fields completion to Moore and loved everything he saw.

“Honestly, this feels a little better considering what (Fields) did after those two turnovers,” Johnson said. “Because that’s disheartening, especially for him wanting to be at the level he knows he can play at.

“But then coming back and making that big throw? I think (it) was bigger than just a game-winning drive. This was about his resilience, being able to stick to it and deliver that ball when and where he needed to.”

Without a terrific defensive effort, of course, the Bears would have been doomed. Yet with the game on the line and few opportunities left, Fields and Moore met the moment. They made a play to win the game.

“We got the finish part down,” Moore said. “Now we can see it. We can touch on it and grasp it. We want to see that more moving forward.”

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A 27-year-old St. Paul man died following a one-car crash Wednesday morning in St. Croix County, Wis.

Darwin Maradiaga-Castellon was driving a 2004 Dodge Durango around 6:50 a.m. Wednesday when he apparently lost control of the vehicle in the 2300 block of Hwy 63/64 in the Town of Cylon, went into the north ditch and hit a tree, according to the St. Croix County, Wis., Sheriff’s Office.

Maradiaga-Castellon was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul by ambulance and later died from his injuries.

A passenger, Wilmer Redondo-Reyes, 39, of St. Paul, sustained minor injuries. Both men were wearing seat belts.

Icy road conditions may have been a contributing factor in the crash, which remains under investigation, according to a press release from the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office was assisted by Wisconsin State Patrol, New Richmond Fire and EMS, and Deer Park Fire.

This incident marks the 13th fatality recorded by St. Croix County in 2023, the release states.

The “Monday Night Football” viewing audience was put through an ugly, defense-dominated affair for much of the game between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.

But when Cairo Santos’ 30-yard field goal sailed through the uprights with 10 seconds to play, the Bears emerged with a thing of beauty: their first NFC North win in more than two years.

The Bears defense intercepted Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs four times to fuel a 12-10 victory, the first divisional win of the Matt Eberflus era after the coach started 0-9. The Bears have two opportunities left to get another NFC North win, on Dec. 10 against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field and Jan. 7 against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

The Bears (4-8) have a bye in Week 13 before the Lions game.

After losing two fourth-quarter fumbles, Bears quarterback Justin Fields engineered the winning scoring drive. On third-and-10 from the Vikings 49-yard line, Fields hit DJ Moore for a 36-yard pass up the middle. Santos hit his fourth field goal after three Fields kneel-downs.

The Vikings (6-6) took a 10-9 lead on Dobbs’ 17-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson with 5 minutes, 54 seconds to play. But after Fields’ second fumble, a defensive stop gave the Bears one last chance to win it.

The Bears defense did much of the work to keep the game close all night.

Jaylon Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, T.J. Edwards and Kyler Gordon picked off Dobbs, but the Bears managed just three points off the takeaways. They punted after the Johnson and Brisker interceptions in the first half.

Santos made a 55-yard field goal after Edwards’ pick. He also made field goals of 25 and 39 yards after missing a 48-yard attempt wide right on the opening drive.

Fields lost a fumble after Gordon’s pick when Vikings edge rusher Danielle Hunter got the strip-sack, and Sheldon Day recovered. The Vikings then marched 77 yards for the only touchdown of the game.

Fields’ second fumble — forced by Josh Metellus and recovered by Anthony Barr — came on the Bears’ next drive.

Fields completed 27 of 37 passes for 217 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and three sacks. He ran 12 times for 59 yards.

Dobbs was 22 of 32 for 185 yards with the touchdown and the four interceptions. The Bears had two sacks.

• Column: ‘Tunnel vision.’ With a clutch completion, Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields finished a sloppy night with a signature win.
• Chicago Bears defense hopefully finding its groove after a 4-interception game against the Minnesota Vikings

Here’s how the game unfolded.

Inactives: Vikings’ Justin Jefferson and Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson out

The Bears won’t have to face Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson for a second time this season when the teams meet Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Jefferson will miss the game as he continues his recovery from a strained right hamstring. Jefferson, the 2022 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, has been on injured reserve since the week leading up to the Bears’ first game against the Vikings this season, a 19-13 Minnesota victory Oct. 15.

That means the Vikings will be without their two most important offensive players, as quarterback Kirk Cousins is out for the season after Achilles surgery.

The Vikings’ top wide receiver without Jefferson is rookie Jordan Addison, who has 48 catches for 647 yards and seven touchdowns. Tight end T.J. Hockenson leads all Vikings players with 75 catches for 736 yards and four touchdowns.

The Bears announced Sunday they would be without rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, running back D’Onta Foreman and offensive tackle Larry Borom.

Stevenson hurt his ankle in practice Saturday in the Walter Payton Center and will miss a game for the first time this season. Fellow rookie Terell Smith, who returned from mononucleosis last week, could see increased playing time.

Foreman has been battling ankle and shin injuries, so the Bears will rely on running backs Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson instead. Borom, a key reserve, was out all week with an illness.

Linebacker Noah Sewell, defensive end Dominique Robinson, quarterback Nathan Peterman and safety Quindell Johnson are also inactive for the Bears.

For the Vikings, quarterback Jaren Hall, cornerback Akayleb Evans, tight end Nick Muse, linebacker Nick Vigil and offensive linemen Chris Reed and Hakeem Adeniji are inactive. Hall will serve as the emergency third quarterback.

• 5 things to watch in the Bears-Vikings game — plus our Week 12 predictions

Halftime: Bears can’t capitalize on 2 picks in a 3-3 tie

The Bears defense intercepted Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs twice in the first half Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. But the Bears offense didn’t capitalize on either takeaway, and the teams crawled into halftime with a 3-3 tie.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson and safety Jaquan Brisker picked off Dobbs, who didn’t get the Vikings into scoring range until the final drive before halftime. Greg Joseph made a 34-yard field goal as time expired to tie it.

Bears quarterback Justin Fields completed 17 of 22 passes for 135 yards with two sacks and no turnovers and had 21 of the Bears’ 40 rushing yards. The Bears committed six penalties for 71 yards in the half.

The Bears put together a nine-minute opening drive, but it stalled when Fields was sacked for a loss of 5 yards and a pass to Cole Kmet lost another yard. Fields completed all eight of his passes for 37 yards on the drive.

Cairo Santos then missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt wide right. It was Santos’ second miss of the season.

Santos rebounded with a 25-yard field goal on the Bears’ next drive for a 3-0 lead. The drive included a fourth-and-10 pass from Fields to Kmet that went for 24 yards to the Vikings 14-yard line.

But the Bears offense stalled from there despite the defense providing multiple opportunities.

Johnson came up with his third interception of the season on the Vikings’ ensuing drive, picking off Dobbs and returning it 20 yards to the Vikings 37. A Kyler Gordon taunting penalty for taking off his helmet and a Darnell Wright false start helped doom the drive, and the Bears punted.

Brisker intercepted Dobbs on the Vikings’ next drive on a pass that bounced off Jordan Addison’s hands. The Bears punted after four plays.

Johnson nearly had his second interception on third down on the next drive. But the ball bounced out of Johnson’s hands, and he spiked it to the ground in frustration.

Bears left guard Teven Jenkins left the game for a couple of series with an undisclosed injury but returned late in the second quarter.

Catch up on the rest of our coverage.

Finishing touch proves elusive for Eberflus’ Bears

Five of the Bears’ last six losses have been by a touchdown or less, the exception an uninspiring 30-13 road loss to the Chargers on Oct. 29. They were tied with the Saints entering the fourth quarter three weeks ago, had an ugly win against the Panthers and melted down against the Lions. Before that, the Bears lost to the Vikings and dropped a 31-28 decision to the Broncos that included a series of late-game mishaps.

Until Matt Eberflus’ team discovers a way to put teams away in the fourth quarter, this will define the Bears.

The Bears have been in the majority of games this season, especially recently. They have closed the talent gap in that regard. Now it’s about learning how to put opponents away. Read more here.

• 4 things we heard from Bears coach Matt Eberflus, including ‘accountability’ for coaches and players
• What’s Matt Eberflus’ job status now? Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts after the Bears’ disastrous Week 11 loss.

Stats package

4: Career games by Justin Fields with a passer rating of at least 100.0. Three of those have come in his’ last four starts, including the 105.2 rating he posted in last week’s loss to the Lions.

0-4: The Bears’ record this season against teams currently inside the playoff picture. The losses have come against the Chiefs, Vikings, Saints and Lions. The Bears were 1-5 in 2022 against teams that qualified for the postseason.

Read more attention-grabbing numbers here..

• How can Bears and QB Justin Fields handle the Vikings pressure better in Monday’s rematch?
• Bears Q&A: What’s Justin Fields’ future now? What to make of Martellus Bennett’s comments? What would it take to get new ownership?
• 5 things we learned from the Bears, including the thought process of OC Luke Getsy during Sunday’s loss
• With a bump from Bears, girls flag football taking hold at area high schools — including a playoff run at Stagg
• Jordan Love ties career high with 3 TD passes in Packers’ 29-22 win over NFC North-leading Lions
• Bears guard Teven Jenkins says ‘no problem’ to switching sides again as Nate Davis returns
• Column: For Chicago’s sports teams, home cooking in 2023 has left their fans feeling sick to their stomach
• The Bears have played 37 times on Thanksgiving — but not this year. Here’s how they’ve fared in each game since 1920.
• Column: Montez Sweat’s big contract with the Bears gives him security — and with it comes big-time pressure
• Inside Halas Hall: Can Kevin Warren’s ambitious vision revive the Bears?

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By FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans demanded Friday that Hunter Biden appear this month for a closed-door deposition, rejecting his offer to testify publicly while pledging to release a transcript of the private interview for transparency.

House Oversight Committee chair James Comer and Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan reiterated the parameters of the subpoena issued last month to Hunter Biden in a letter — obtained by The Associated Press — to his attorney. The president’s son refused their request this week for closed-door testimony, saying it could be manipulated.

“The subpoenas Mr. Biden has received compel him to appear before the Committees for a deposition; they are not mere suggestions open to Mr. Biden’s interpretation or preference,” the Republican chairmen wrote in a letter to attorney Abbe Lowell.

Lowell this week had called the nearly yearslong GOP investigation into his client a “fishing expedition,” but offered for his client to appear publicly rather than behind closed doors, saying closed sessions can be selectively leaked and used to manipulate the facts.

His response to the committee was in line with the more forceful approach Hunter Biden’s legal team has taken in recent months as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry seeking to tie his father to his business dealings.

But Comer and Jordan reiterated their initial request, saying they are conforming with the approach Republican and Democratic majorities have historically taken when deposing witnesses.

“Mr. Biden seems to believe that he should be treated differently than other witnesses before the Committees,” the men wrote.

Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The early-November subpoenas to Hunter Biden and others were the inquiry’s most aggressive steps yet, testing the reach of congressional oversight powers.

Republicans have so far failed to uncover evidence directly implicating President Joe Biden in any wrongdoing. But questions have arisen about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international business, and lawmakers insist their evidence paints a troubling picture of “influence peddling” in the family’s business dealings, particularly with clients overseas.

Republicans have also spoken with an attorney for the president’s brother, James Biden,to determine a date for his subpoenaed testimony, Jordan said this week. The subpoenas to the Biden family members and others, including former business associate Rob Walker, are bitterly opposed by Democrats, and the White House has called for them to be withdrawn and questioned their legitimacy.

The criticism has pushed Republicans to consider holding a vote this month to formally authorize their inquiry in an effort to strengthen their legal standing if the subpoena battle drags into court.

But holding a vote on the impeachment investigation would be a risky move by House Republican leaders, who have not yet been able to garner enough support for the inquiry in their narrow 222-213 majority. With Democrats united against the impeachment push, GOP leaders would need near-unanimous support from their side for the vote to succeed.

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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Michael Phillips | (TNS) Chicago Tribune

They work on different planets, and they do their superstar thing in very different ways, but the recent Taylor Swift concert film was, you know, fine. Whereas “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” is really good.

Beyoncé’s outrageously lavish five-month 2023 concert tour’s mixture of spectacle, spangle, video immersion and dance party has been captured, deliriously, for fans who caught the show live and those who didn’t.

The movie’s generous footage — a lot of it — of the rehearsal, setup, backstage beehive and fan adoration, crystallized by one tear-stained rapturous close-up after another, reveals only (and precisely) what Beyoncé wants to reveal. She directed it, wrote the narration, produced it, ran the whole shebang. And there’s enough moviemaking going on in the results to activate the experience.

Released by AMC Theatres, which made hay on Swift’s concert movie a few weeks ago, “Renaissance” opened for the public Thursday night. I caught it at a Regal multiplex in IMAX ($33.75 with fees on Fandango) and the crowd, BeyHivers in large, glammed-up part, clapped a ton and interacted fully. Somebody in my audience really didn’t have a good impression of Houston, Texas, where the onetime two-named Beyoncé Knowles grew up. So every mention of the word “Houston” in the movie was met with a “Noooooooo!”

The most Grammy’d musical artist in history (second place: Sir Georg Solti), Beyoncé speaks several times in “Renaissance” about creating a “safe space” for her fans, many of whom look to her music, and to her, for solace, understanding, a melodic and rhythmic comfort zone. The endlessly voguing, perpetually yet serenely transforming star we see in “Renaissance” works like a fiend to realize the fine points. Who could ask for more from a superstar on a series of superstages, one minute evoking Fritz Lang’s robot woman in “Metropolis,” the next, a kinetic, electric Destiny’s Child alum in motion? Beyoncé has that beautiful, rangy voice, those moves, that face, the whole self-described “Black country curvy” wonder of her at her disposal.

As a visual capture of a tour supporting an album, “Renaissance” may not hold a candle to her remarkable, 65-minute visual album “Lemonade” that appeared, more or less out of nowhere, in 2016. But it’s holding an entirely different sort of candle, or rather two candles. One’s a concert movie; the other’s a how-I-made-the-concert-and-this-movie movie.

“Renaissance” was her seventh studio album, and the “Renaissance” concert tour started in Stockholm in May 2023, not long after Beyoncé had knee surgery. “I’m not a machine,” she reminds us. Her work/life balance challenges on tour would clobber anyone. Traveling, albeit not in coach or Ubers, with husband Jay-Z and their three kids; the touring life; the hours it takes Beyoncé to wind down after a performance; the demands every which way are not easy.

Allowing her eager 11-year-old, Blue Ivy, to perform on tour with her, who then gets flamed on social media for it is not easy. The movie devotes a good chunk to Blue Ivy’s resolve to keep rehearsing, try again and get better.

There are lengthy, loving tributes to the Knowles’ family friend Uncle Johnny, who introduced Beyoncé to house music and designed a lot of her early looks. Thanks to her, the late nephew of her mother Tina Knowles has become a queer icon for millions. We hear Beyoncé acknowledge her frustrations, even at her particular summit of stardom, at not getting what she wants out of her colleagues, or business partners, without a struggle. “Communicating as a Black woman, everything is a fight,” she says coolly at one point. The “Renaissance” touring extravaganza we see on screen is proof that the fight was, and is, worth it.

Some (like me) may prefer concert movies (or backstage/onstage performance hybrids) that settle for highlights rather than most of the live show. “Renaissance,” the movie, runs nearly three hours. The pacing feels a little off in the final half-hour. Some detours don’t quite pay off, such as the Destiny’s Child reunion in Houston, given about 20 seconds of screen time and then it’s gone.

On the other hand, “Renaissance” does so much right, including the editing decision to use a dizzying variety of takes, captured in different cities and different costumes, within a single bar or two of a given song. The woman at the center of it all seems to be changing costumes at will, with one shake of whatever’s shaking at the moment. The movie’s commercial fortunes will, I think, bear out the lyric in “Thique,” the one about cash getting thiquer. But if there’s a triple-threat out there who delivers more for your cash, I don’t know why we haven’t heard about her yet.

“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” — 3 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating

Running time: 2:48

How to watch: Now in theaters

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MIKE STOBBE (AP Medical Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Flu is picking up steam while RSV lung infections that can hit kids and older people hard may be peaking, U.S. health officials said Friday.

COVID-19, though, continues to cause the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses — about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every week, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency is also looking into reports of pneumonia outbreaks in children in two states, but Cohen said “there is no evidence” that they are due to anything unusual.

As for the flu season, seven states were reporting high levels of flu-like illnesses in early November. In a new CDC report on Friday, the agency said the tally was up to 11 states — mostly in the South and Southwest.

In the last month, RSV infections rose sharply in some parts of the country, nearly filling hospital emergency departments in Georgia, Texas and some other states. But “we think we’re near the peak of RSV season or will be in the next week or so,” Cohen said.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus is a common cause of mild coldlike symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and older people.

Cohen was asked about pneumonia cases in children reported in Massachusetts and in Warren County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. There are a number of possible causes of the lung infection, and it can be a complication of COVID-19, flu, or RSV.

In Ohio, health officials have reported 145 cases since August and most of the children recovered at home. The illnesses were caused by a variety of common viruses and bacteria, officials said.

China recently had a surge in respiratory illnesses which health officials there attributed to the flu and other customary causes.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Orioles on Tuesday announced the start times of their 81 home games in 2024, including a 3:05 p.m. first pitch for their March 28 season opener against the Los Angeles Angels and almost 30 weeknight games that will begin at 6:35 p.m.

The only weeknight game at Camden Yards this season that will begin after 7 p.m. is Aug. 22 against the Houston Astros, with all 29 other such contests beginning at 6:35 p.m., an earlier start meant to benefit families with children. The home schedule also includes 10 midweek day games, typically lining up with holidays or accommodating team travel.

The reigning American League East champions will also have 13 Saturday home games with a first pitch of 4:05 p.m., with the lone exception being a June 29 matchup with the World Series champion Texas Rangers that begins at 7:15 p.m.

Friday games in Baltimore are scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m., and the club’s Sunday home games have first pitch times of 1:35 p.m.

All dates and times are subject to change. The Orioles notably do not yet have a lease to play at Camden Yards in 2024 or beyond, as their current agreement with the Maryland Stadium Authority is set to expire on Dec. 31.

The team also announced Birdland Memberships, its form of season tickets, will go on sale Thursday.

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Benet junior Aria Mazza has been playing basketball for about eight years.

It all started because of her older brother’s violin.

Giovanni Mazza, 18, is an elite violinist who has played during dozens of NBA games since he was discovered during a Chicago Bulls youth talent search in 2015.

“I’ve got to go to all these games, and that’s kind of how I got into basketball,” Aria Mazza said. “Just being dragged to every NBA game, I started watching the games, and I started to love the game.”

Mazza is beginning to make music of a different kind in her first season with the Redwings (4-2) after transferring.

The 5-foot-7 guard started at Conant last season but is usually the first or second player off the bench for Benet.

“During middle school, I wanted to come here, but COVID kind of changed the plans up,” Mazza said. “Now that I’m here, it’s a little more competitive in practices, but I think it’s really helped me, and I’m excited to be here.”

The Redwings seem excited she’s here.

“I think that the second she came here, everybody did a good job of welcoming her, and she fit in right away,” Benet sophomore guard Bridget Rifenburg said. “She’s definitely bringing a huge talent to the team that we needed, and she’s contributing every game.

“So even though she’s coming off the bench as the sixth man, she’s still a super crucial piece of our team.”

Mazza showed why on Thursday, coming off the bench to contribute four points, a team-high nine rebounds, five steals and two assists to help Benet beat previously unbeaten Lyons 54-45 in Lisle. She did that despite playing less than half the game.

“I kind of think of her as an offensive player, but her defense was great today,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “She really gave us some juice today off the bench. She got us going in good ways.”

Mazza checked in midway through the first quarter with the Lions (5-1) leading 9-6. She assisted on senior forward Shannon Earley’s driving layup and then sank two midrange jumpers, both of which gave the Redwings the lead.

Mazza later had an offensive rebound that led to junior guard Lindsay Harzich’s 3-pointer, which broke a 14-14 tie and put the Redwings ahead to stay. Despite playing against a bigger lineup that included 6-2 post players Nora Ezike and Emma O’Brien, the Redwings outrebounded the Lions 20-7 on the offensive end, with Mazza accounting for six of them.

“I think I played pretty solid,” Mazza said. “I like the fact that when you’re coming off the bench, you can see what’s going on with the other team and what we need to adjust to. That’s what has helped me come off the bench.”

The Redwings don’t have a lot of size, so Kilbride is employing more full-court pressure. Mazza was particularly effective against the Lions while playing at the top of the press alongside Rifenburg, who scored a game-high 11 points and also had five steals.

“Our pressure was good, and when she got in, it was even better,” Kilbride said of Mazza. “So that was very nice to see.”

Kilbride likes much of what he’s seeing from Mazza.

“The nice thing is she can kind of do everything,” Kilbride said. “She can handle it. She’s got a good midrange. She’s a very good decision-maker.

“She’s still trying to learn me and learn kind of what we’re doing. But she’s been great, so we’re very happy with her.”

Mazza is happy to be surrounded by talented teammates so she won’t be relied on to be a top scorer.

“Now that I have a team of shooters all around me, I think I can contribute a lot with assists and just moving the ball and being a distributor,” she said.

But don’t think Mazza is incapable of filling up the basket.

“She definitely can make big shots whenever we need her to,” Rifenburg said. “And we can always count on her to score for us.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.

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St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on St. Croix took home high honors at the recent International Chocolate Awards world finals.

The company, run by Robyn Dochterman, won a silver award for its burnt cinnamon and bourbon bar, which consists of — get this! — layers of real bourbon caramel and a ganache filling made by infusing flame-charred cinnamon sticks into cream, all inside brown butter milk chocolate.

They also won bronze for macadamia bon bons, which include macadamia blossom honey and brown butter macadamia shortbread cookies along with Venezuelan chocolate.

In the Americas division of the chocolate awards, announced in September, the bon bons earned the highest score in the “fillings” category and a gold award, which secured their spot in the global competition.

Results of the International Chocolate Awards, the largest craft chocolate competition in the world, were announced Nov. 23 in Florence, Italy. Dochterman herself was not able to attend in person — she’s in the middle of the holiday rush, after all — but former employee Nathan “Fox” Eisinger and Scandia-based beekeeper Cathy Mackiewicz, who produces some of the honey Dochterman uses, accepted the awards on her behalf.

Dochterman, 61, formerly a journalist at the Star Tribune, launched St. Croix Chocolate Company in 2010.

“The wins that we’ve had reinforce, for me, that we’re doing it right,” she said in October, the day before she sent samples of her chocolates to Italy for judging. “And that we’re creating an experience for our customers that makes your eyes roll back in your head for a moment, that sort of stops time.”

She’s been entering her chocolates in competitions since the beginning, even when she knew she wouldn’t win, she said. How else would she discover the high-water mark in chocolate — and set goals to beat it? This was before you could just scroll through Instagram, she pointed out.

“When I first started entering contests, I was a hilarious failure,” she said. “But it helped me to see, here’s where I want to be. Now, how do I get there?”

Online orders are currently sold out, but you can buy Dochterman’s chocolates in person at her small production facility/retail store in Marine. Hours are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

St. Croix Chocolate Company: 261 Parker St., Marine on St. Croix; 651-433-1400; stcroixchocolateco.com.

My hankering for homemade holiday treats started with my Aunt Lillian’s peanut brittle. Throughout my childhood, every year her nut-laden gift of candy arrived a few days before Christmas. Packed loosey-goosey in a pristine coffee can, Lillian’s crunchy confections disappeared far too quickly.

Those jagged brittle bits fueled my appreciation for delicious gifts from the home kitchen.

Here are some gift ideas designed to be both easy to prepare and tasty:

• A dry concoction for making hot chocolate goes together quickly. The recipient combines a portion of the mix with milk in a saucepan; on the heat, the mixture is whisked while the good stuff simmers. Marshmallows or whipped cream are optional.
• There’s so much to love about Bourbon Balls. Yes, they are easy to prepare, plus and they can be made a week in advance and stored airtight in the fridge. The adult appeal of their unmistakable bourbon flavor doesn’t hurt either.
• Chef-restauranteur Zov Karamardian has a signature jumble cookie that I have made my own, adding a little wheat germ to the mix and subbing dried cranberries and golden raisins for the raisins. The cookies are rich in toasted nuts and dried fruit, as well as chocolate chips. The dough freezes well unbaked and once the cookies are baked, they keep well for several days in an airtight container.
• Spiced pecans are delicious tossed into green salad or eaten out of hand. I like to add medium-coarse pepper to the sugar and salt that coats them. Feel free to omit the pepper if you prefer. Store cooled nuts airtight.

Zov’s Jumble Cookies

Just thinking about these cookies makes me hungry. Ever since Chef Zov Karamardian wrote her cookbook “Simply Zov,” I’ve been baking them for gift giving. I like to pack them in holiday-themed cookie tins. For the best results measure and toast the nuts before chopping.

Yield: About 25 to 30 cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups whole skin-on almonds

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional; 1 tablespoon wheat germ

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 (12-ounce) package dark chocolate chips; see cook’s notes

2 cups raisins; see cook’s notes

Parchment paper or nonstick cooking spray

DIRECTIONS

Cook’s notes: For my adaptation, I add 1 tablespoon wheatgerm along with the flour in step 2, and I use 1 cup golden raisins and 1 cup dried cranberries. Either way is delicious. And I sometimes use semi-sweet chocolate chunks instead of chips, using on about 8 ounces instead of 12.

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place nuts on rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring halfway through baking. On a cutting board, chop nuts and set aside. Maintain oven temperature.

2. In medium bowl, stir to blend the flour, baking soda, salt, and if using, wheat germ. Set the flour mixture aside. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in the mixing bowl until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. With the machine on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated (do not over mix the dough or the cookies will be tough). Mix in the chocolate chips and raisins. Lastly, mix in the chopped nuts.

3. Line 4 heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray the baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. (It is easier to scoop up dough if using a 4-ounce ice cream scoop.) If you don’t have a scoop, mound the dough in 1/2 cup measurements onto prepared baking sheets, spacing evenly and forming 8 to 6 mounds on each baking sheet. With the palm of your hand, lightly press down on cookie dough to slightly flatten. Working in batches, bake the cookies until they are golden brown all over and the very center is still pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool completely.

Source: “Simply Zov”

Hot Chocolate Mix

Whizzing this tasty mix of ingredients in the food processor breaks up the bits and pieces so that they melt beautifully when stirred into warm milk. Be sure to include the prep directions when packaging as a gift (see step 2). I like to divide the mixture into thirds and place it in petite canning jars; if desired tie a very small whisk on the side along with instructions.

Yield: 3 cups of mix, enough for 12 (one cup) servings

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup (3 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) nonfat dry milk powder

5 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

To prepare hot chocolate:

1 cup milk

1/4 cup hot chocolate mix

Optional: Whipped cream or marshmallows

DIRECTIONS

1. Process all ingredients in food processor until ground to a powder, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer to airtight storage containers Mix can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 months.

2. To make one serving of hot chocolate: Heat 1 cup milk in small saucepan over medium heat until it starts to steam and bubbles appear around edge of saucepan. Add 1/4 cup of  hot chocolate mix and continue to heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is simmering, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour hot chocolate into mug and serve with whipped cream or marshmallows, if desired.

Source: “America’s Test Kitchen’s Complete Autumn and Winter Cookbook”

Candied Pecans, Peppered or Not

Generally, I include a little medium-coarse pepper in the sweet glaze that coats these pecans, but if you prefer them simply salty-sweet, omit the pepper. They are delicious eaten as a snack or cocktail treat, but my favorite way to use them is in a green salad with fresh pears and a blue cheese vinaigrette. The choice is yours.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Optional: 1/2 teaspoon medium-coarse ground pepper

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl combine the sugar, salt and pepper and stir to blend well. Set it aside. Place a rimmed baking sheet next to stove.

2. Heat a large deep skillet or wok over high heat until it is hot. Add the pecans and heat the pecans, about 1 minute, occasionally tossing or stirring. Sprinkle on half of the sugar mixture and shake pan or stir frequently until sugar melts, about 1 minute. Add the remaining sugar mixture and shake or stir until sugar melts. Immediately turn onto the baking sheet. Spread nuts apart and cool completely. Store them well sealed.

Bourbon Balls

The combination of vanilla wafers and toasted nuts add a just-right crunch to these Bourbon Balls. They can be prepared a week in advance and stored airtight in the refrigerator.

Yield: About 24

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups (6 ounces) vanilla wafers

1 cup pecans, toasted; see cook’s notes

1/2 cup (2 ounces) powdered sugar

6 tablespoons bourbon

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Cook’s notes: To toast pecans, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place in single layer on rimmed baking sheet and bake in middle of preheated oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. I store large bags of nuts in the refrigerator; they generally take less time to toast if they have been refrigerated for a few months. Cool toasted nuts before using in this recipe.

DIRECTIONS

1. Process vanilla wafers and pecans in food processor until finely ground, about 15 seconds; transfer to large bowl. Stir in powdered sugar, bourbon, corn syrup, and cocoa.

2. Spread granulated sugar in shallow dish. Working with 1 heaping tablespoon at a time, roll wafer mixture into balls, then roll in granulated sugar to coat. Transfer balls to large plate and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, before serving. (Bourbon balls can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 1 week.)

Source: “America’s Test Kitchen’s Complete Autumn and Winter Cookbook”

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at @CathyThomas Cooks.com.

David Kroman | The Seattle Times (TNS)

SEATTLE — Even brief exposure to highway pollution could cause significant increases in blood pressure, a new study from the University of Washington has found, adding to a growing body of work correlating vehicle exhaust with negative health outcomes.

The effects are near immediate: Two hours in Seattle’s rush hour was enough to increase blood pressure by nearly 5 millimeters of mercury, a jump that would push someone with normal levels to elevated or from elevated levels to stage 1 hypertension.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was conducted by a team at the UW, led by Dr. Joel Kaufman, a university physician and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences. The increase, he said, was about what you’d expect to see in someone who switched from a low-salt to high-salt diet.

“It’s a real interesting, important number that if you think of millions of people having this exposure every day, that’s moving a lot of people from the normal to the high blood pressure range,” Kaufman said. “That has a lot of impact on the risk of heart attacks and strokes.”

At a micro level, the study suggests a need for improved filtration in vehicles; absent a HEPA filter, most cars fail to catch possibly harmful particles piped in from the outside.

On a broader level, it’s another data point in a larger conversation around how the country’s highway system harms those whose daily lives are shrouded in tailpipe fumes. Low-income and working-class communities, often with large populations of people of color, are disproportionately likely to live near major highways. When the highway system was built to begin with, it was often through well-established Black or Latino neighborhoods.

“The big issue here is not just about being in the car,” said Kaufman. “The big issue is that lots of people breathe traffic-related air pollution. That could be walking or biking or living, and historically these major roadways were cut right through low-income areas.”

Research has already established that exposure to car fumes can lead to increased risk of stroke or heart attack. And some lab-based work has suggested blood pressure spikes may be a factor.

The UW team took the question further. To start, they tested participants in a closed setting — piping small amounts of diesel fumes into a room and measuring blood pressure. They saw a bump in blood pressure among the roughly 40 participants.

But that setting, the team concluded, was more likely to test occupational exposure to exhaust, rather than more typical ambient highway pollution.

So the team moved the experiment to the streets. Using a Dodge Caravan equipped with advance filtration and monitors, a driver carted each participant — screened to exclude most confounding factors — through Seattle’s rush hour traffic for two hours on three different occasions. On two of the drives, the air was unfiltered; on one, it was filtered. The participants did not know which was which.

Researchers found that, during the unfiltered drives, the blood pressure increases were similar to those seen in the lab, of just under 5 millimeters of mercury.

This was a surprise even to the research team because the number of particles measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less — which are measured to gauge air quality and are high during wildfire season — was less than in the lab setting.

However, the number of ultrafine particles measuring 0.1 micrometers or less — which do not show up on air quality reports — was roughly the same. That suggests the tiniest particles may be closely tied to blood pressure increases.

The study, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Institutes of Health, was small, a limitation noted by the Annals of Internal Medicine. Just 13 participants returned usable data. However, Kaufman said he’s confident in the statistical significance because the study is comparing people to themselves.

As for what’s happening in the body, Kaufman speculated it was a mini fight-or-flight reaction — that when the small particles entered someone’s lungs or bloodstream, the body would perceive them as a threat.

What the blood pressure jump means long term, if anything, is unclear. However, after 24 hours, participants still had elevated levels.

Environmental inequities, often the result of highway placement, have received increased attention in recent years. As part of its massive infrastructure bill, the Biden administration set aside $1 billion for communities that were upended by highway construction and whose residents still breathe the toxic results. It’s a pittance when compared to the issue, but an acknowledgment that the issue is in fact real.

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©2023 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A long-simmering dispute over the St. Paul firefighters’ contract has been resolved by an arbitrator, who recently decided they should receive 11 percent raises during a three-year contract.

The city proposed wage increases of 9.5 percent during the term of the contract, while the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 21 sought pay raises of 15 percent.

The firefighters’ contract expired Dec. 31 and they’ve continued working under its terms. The City Council is scheduled to take up the new contract Wednesday and vote on it Dec. 13, which are routine steps.

Local 21 made its frustrations public in August, when they held an informational picket to bring attention to their labor contract being unsettled for more than 200 days at that point. Off-duty firefighters marched on Snelling Avenue with signs saying “Firefighters, paramedics need your help,” along with signs reading “Understaffed. Overworked,” and “Without contract. Still responding.”

The St. Paul fire department, which also provides emergency medical services in the city, is the largest in the state, Arbitrator Frank Kundrat wrote in his summary. The union says they’re the busiest, responding to 57,388 calls in 2021, compared to Minneapolis’ 51,080.

What happened

The firefighters’ contract is the last of 12 union contracts to be settled in this bargaining cycle in St. Paul. Local 21 represents 467 employees, including emergency medical technicians, firefighters, fire equipment operators, captains, arson investigators and emergency management services coordinators. Fire department supervisors have a separate contract, which is already settled.

“After months of unsuccessful negotiations,” Kundrat wrote, Local 21 requested in April that contract negotiators go to an arbitrator, which the city didn’t object to. He heard the union’s and the city’s positions at the end of August at the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services and later issued a written decision.

Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement that they support the arbitrator’s decision “and look forward to ratifying a new contract with the union as soon as possible.”

Mike Smith, Local 21 president, said they’re not “real happy with the arbitration ruling,” but they knew going to arbitration was a risk and didn’t feel they had any other choice “because the mayor wasn’t willing to work with us.” The last time Local 21 and St. Paul went to arbitration over the contract was in 2005.

The sticking point in the current contract negotiations was layoff language for emergency medical technicians working on Basic Life Support ambulances, Smith said in August.

Carter said last December that the Basic Life Support unit is “the most fruitful feeder system to bring residents, people of color and women into our department,” but its employees suffer “second class employment status” that leaves them vulnerable in the event of layoffs. They’re also members of Local 21 and, under the contract, they would be the first to be laid off in the event that workforce reduction results in sworn firefighters being laid off.

Kundrat did not change the contract’s language about layoffs, writing the city had “not articulated a compelling reason for the change nor has it provided a quid pro quo to justify it.”

When it came to wages, Kundrat wrote that among the factors he considered were the city’s ability to pay, recruitment and retention and market comparisons.

City’s ability to pay

St. Paul said the union’s proposal exceeded its budget, but Local 21 said the city could plan accordingly and had received federal and state aid.

The city was concerned about raising the tax levy additionally to meet the firefighters’ wage demands, “as they have raised the levy significantly over the last years,” including 14.6 percent for the 2023 budget year, Kundrat wrote in his summary.

The city said it could fund wage increases from its cash reserves, but “are reluctant to reduce them and risk lowering the city’s bonding ability.”

Recruitment and retention

More than 500 people applied for the most recent open examination for St. Paul firefighter jobs. While the city said the national firefighter industry as a whole was having trouble with recruiting and staffing shortages, the St. Paul department “has a very stable, long-term workforce,” Kundrat wrote.

There was some evidence from Local 21 that several firefighters left to work in suburban fire departments. But Kundrat wrote the fire department didn’t appear to have problems with recruitment, retention or attrition.

Market comparisons

“Are St. firefighters paid at a reasonable level compared to other comparable fire departments?” Kundrat asked.

The union cited a statewide wage comparison commissioned by the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters, which Local 21 said put St. Paul firefighter wages 14 out of 32 departments. Kundrat wrote that ranking was only for starting wages and didn’t show the entire picture.

In looking at 14 cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis were ranked first and second, respectively, out of 14 cities for maximum pay, Kundrat wrote. The city showed the average wage for a Local 21 member in 2022 was $100,800.

Wage decision

Kundrat concluded that Local 21 members “enjoy a good income, particularly compared to other represented city employees and the average St. Paul worker. Nonetheless, the demands of increasing calls and difficult urban conditions justify an appropriate wage increase for the firefighters. There appears to be room for an increase in the wages proposed by the city, although not to the level proposed by Local 21.”

He decided on a 1.5% base wage increase from Jan. 1, 2023, 2% from July 1, and then 2 percent this Jan. 1, 2 percent on July 1, 2024, 2 percent on Jan. 1, 2025, and 1.5 percent on July 1, 2025.

Jeff Ostrowski | Bankrate.com (TNS)

The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages retreated to 7.41% this week, down from 7.55% the previous week, according to Bankrate’s weekly national survey of large lenders.

The recent reprieve could signal a prolonged drop in mortgage rates, housing economists say. The average rate on 30-year home loans in October topped 8%, but that’s changing because of a number of factors, including a slowing job market and signs that the Federal Reserve’s ongoing war on inflation is working.

“Part of it is the Federal Reserve is pausing on interest rate hikes,” says Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, a real estate listing service in the Mid-Atlantic region. “Of course, mortgage rates are affected by things other than what the Fed does. For example, mortgage applications are down, and lenders are competing for a shrinking pool of applicants.”

Meanwhile, yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, an informal benchmark for 30-year mortgage rates, have dropped from 5% to less than 4.3% in recent weeks.

The Fed doesn’t directly control mortgage rates, but it plays a pivotal role. The central bank sets policy that affects the cost of home loans. At the conclusion of its latest meeting on Nov. 1, the Federal Open Markets Committee decided to leave rates unchanged. Now, economists say, it appears that the central bank is done raising rates.

What happened to mortgage rates this week

The 30-year fixed mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.33 discount and origination points.

Over the past 52 weeks, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.96%. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.78%. Four weeks ago, that rate was 7.95%. The 30-year fixed-rate average for this week is 1.14 percentage points higher than the 52-week low of 6.27%.

As for other loans:

—The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.78%, down from 6.85% from a week ago.

—The 5/6 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 7.34%, down from 7.42% a week ago.

—The 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgage was 7.4%, down from 7.52% a week ago.

How mortgage rates affect home affordability

The national median family income for 2023 is $96,300, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the median price of an existing home sold in October 2023 was $391,800, according to the National Association of Realtors. Based on a 20% down payment and a mortgage rate of 7.41%, the monthly payment of $2,172 amounts to 27% of the typical family’s monthly income.

The sharp rise in mortgage rates over the past two years has squeezed affordability and sparked a slowdown in home sales. First-time buyers are especially challenged by this market. Home prices haven’t fallen significantly, and values are unlikely to decline, given the shortage of homes for sale.

“Higher mortgage rates have a dual impact on the housing market: reducing affordability for buyers and strengthening the rate lock-in for sellers,” says Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American. “The combination of reduced affordability and increased strength of the rate lock-in effect is likely to continue to suppress home sales because you can’t buy what’s not for sale, even if you can afford it.”

Reflecting the affordability squeeze, the median household income for homebuyers jumped to $107,000 in 2023 from $88,000 last year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Will mortgage rates go down?

Economists expected to see mortgage rates decrease by the end of 2023, but the strength of the U.S. economy has thrown a wrinkle into those predictions. Now, though, things finally seem to be cooling, especially 10-year Treasury yields.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, expects mortgage rates to fall below 7% during the winter months. “I believe consumer price inflation will be much lower, and that will allow the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates,” says Yun.

Mortgage rates are also chained to inflation, a metric the Fed has been moving to control. At its September and November meetings, the central bank opted to keep rates unchanged. While the Fed doesn’t directly set fixed mortgage rates, it does set the tone of the interest-rate environment — and as the central bank has boosted its policy rate from zero in early 2022 to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% now, mortgage rates have followed suit.

“There is room for mortgage rates to fall further,” Sturtevant says. “The gap between the 10-year Treasury yield and the 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate is historically around 180 basis points. While the gap has narrowed somewhat, the 30-year mortgage rate remains 280 basis points higher than the bond yield.”

Methodology

The Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders is conducted weekly. To conduct the National Average survey, Bankrate obtains rate information from the 10 largest banks and thrifts in 10 large U.S. markets. In the Bankrate.com national survey, our Market Analysis team gathers rates and/or yields on banking deposits, loans and mortgages. We’ve conducted this survey in the same manner for more than 30 years, and because it’s consistently done the way it is, it gives an accurate national apples-to-apples comparison. Our rates differ from other national surveys, in particular Freddie Mac’s weekly published rates. Each week Freddie Mac surveys lenders on the rates and points based on first-lien prime conventional conforming home purchase mortgages with a loan-to-value of 80%. “Lenders surveyed each week are a mix of lender types — thrifts, credit unions, commercial banks and mortgage lending companies — is roughly proportional to the level of mortgage business that each type commands nationwide,” according to Freddie Mac.

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2023 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Chiefs at Packers (+6½)

Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce has taken to openly flirting with gal pal Taylor Swift through social media posts. It’s now apparent that the Chiefs’ star is rapidly becoming the most obnoxiously overexposed NFL star … not counting the Packers’ previous quarterback. Pick: Chiefs by 7

49ers at Eagles (+2½)

Former Niners hall of famer Deion Sanders has been named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. The Colorado coach, who led the Buffaloes to a 4-8 record, was picked by SI’s panel of artificial intelligence experts consisting of young white male with blue eyes, middle aged brown male with bald spot and elderly black female with bifocals.
Pick: 49ers by 3

Dolphins at Commanders (+9½)

Miami’s Javon Holland made history on Black Friday by intercepting a desperation Jets pass on the final play before halftime and returning it 99 yards for a back-breaking touchdown. The “Hell Mary” is clearly the saddest. most embarrassing moment experienced by Jets fans in at least a week.
Pick: Dolphins by 10

Broncos at Texans (-3½)

Sean Payton’s Broncos defense has come a long way since giving up a record 70 points in Miami two months ago. Denver’s D is doing so well the coach is getting ready to initiate a whole new set of bounties.
Pick: Texans by 1

Lions at Saints (+3½)

Detroit suffered its annual Thanksgiving embarrassment when the first-place Lions were knocked off by NFC North rival Green Bay. The Lions’ holiday performance was almost as unwatchable as Jack Harlow’s halftime show.
Pick: Lions by 7

Falcons at Jets (+3½)

Rap star Ludacris made headlines by descending from the ceiling before last Sunday’s game in Atlanta. The stunt reminded fans just how ludicrous it is that the 5-6 Falcons are in first place in the motley NFC South.
Pick: Falcons by 7

Cardinals at Steelers (-5½)

Pittsburgh receiver Diontae Johnson has apologized to teammates and fans for a perceived lack of effort in last Sunday’s game. Sports fans usually see such a level of lazy disinterest only when watching load-managing NBA teams.
Pick: Steelers by 7

Chargers at Patriots (+5½)

Los Angeles coach Brandon Staley lauded star linebacker Khalil Mack, saying “You’re witnessing one of the most special players that you guys have ever watched.” That’s noteworthy praise coming from one of the least special coaches that you guys have ever watched.
Pick: Chargers by 11

Panthers at Buccaneers (-5½)

Panthers owner David Tepper has fired yet another coach, dumping Frank Reich after the Panthers’ 1-10 start. Reich will be replaced once they can dredge up somebody that is clueless enough to agree to go work for David Tepper.
Pick: Buccaneers by 7

Other games

Browns at Rams (-4½):
Pick: Rams by 3

Colts at Titans (+2½):
Pick: Colts by 3

Bengals at Jaguars (-8½):
Pick: Jaguars by 14

Byes

Vikings, Bears, Giants, Bills, Ravens, Raiders

Record

Week 11
9-7 straight up
10-6 vs. spread

Season
110-70 straight up (.611)
96-84 vs. spread (.533)

You can hear Kevin Cusick on Wednesdays on Bob Sansevere’s “BS Show” podcast on iTunes. You can follow Kevin on Twitter — @theloopnow. He can be reached at kcusick@pioneerpress.com.

By Sally French | NerdWallet

The winter holidays are one of the best times to visit Walt Disney World. The parks and hotels are decked out in fresh decor and there’s no shortage of holiday-themed entertainment. Characters turn up for photos wearing winter garb while some rides get festive overlays (for example, the Jungle Cruise becomes the Jingle Cruise).

But the season also makes for one of the most crowded — and most expensive — times to visit the Disney resort, as Disney engages in variable pricing where tickets cost more on high-demand days. If you’re headed to Disney World this winter, these lesser-known tricks can save money and time.

1. Find the least busy day to visit

(Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World)

Disney trip planning site Touring Plans collected 43 million average wait times for rides over the past 13 years to best predict crowds by day. After rating days on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the least busy and 10 being the busiest), here are Touring Plans’ crowd predictions for the six days before and after Christmas 2023:

• Tuesday, Dec. 19: 7.
• Wednesday, Dec. 20: 7.
• Thursday, Dec. 21: 6.
• Friday, Dec. 22: 5.
• Saturday, Dec. 23: 7.
• Sunday, Dec. 24: 7.
• Monday, Dec. 25: 8.
• Tuesday, Dec. 26: 8.
• Wednesday, Dec. 27: 9.
• Thursday, Dec. 28: 9.
• Friday, Dec. 29: 9.
• Saturday, Dec. 30: 9.
• Sunday, Dec. 31: 8.

If there’s one best day to visit, it’s Friday, Dec. 22. And in general, the week before Christmas is less busy than the week after.

2. Consider Disney’s dining promotion deal

(Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World)

If you’re staying at a Disney-owned resort, a limited-time dining promotion might sweeten the deal. You’ll receive a Dining Promo Card (for use at most Disney restaurants) when you book a minimum five-night stay, worth up to $1,000.

The card’s value is correlated to the price of your hotel room, so travelers who book rooms in the Deluxe tier of Disney resorts receive $200 per night, while rooms booked at Disney’s lower-cost hotels receive $60 per night.

Depending on the room you book, this promotion could be a deal. For example, NerdWallet found availability at one of Disney’s top-tier hotels, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, for under $500 per night on some nights in December.

While the package requires a minimum five-night stay plus park tickets, receiving a dining gift card ($800 if you book four nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge) worth about 40% of the overall room cost might be appealing.

The promotion covers stays on most nights through March 5, 2024, including Thanksgiving week and the week before Christmas (arrival dates between Dec. 26 and Jan. 8 aren’t eligible).

3. Order small plates at the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays

If you’re not staying at a Disney resort long enough to qualify for the dining promo, dine at the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays.

Between Nov. 24 and Dec. 30, temporary food stands serve seasonal international dishes in line with the park’s global theme. For example, the Japanese-themed Shi Wasu Holiday Kitchen serves cranberry boba and the L’Chaim! Holiday Kitchen serves potato latkes.

Epcot festival dishes are typically smaller than traditional restaurant entrees, but prices are lower. Many food items cost less than $5, and almost all are less than $10.

4. Replace theme park visits with free activities

(Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World)

Rather than buying a theme park ticket, take a free, self-guided tour past the massive and intricate gingerbread houses on display in the lobbies of six Disney-owned hotels. Among the largest displays is at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. According to Disney, the hotel’s pastry team spent 500 hours baking gingerbread and 480 hours decorating the house, which features 10,000 pieces of gingerbread.

Getting to each hotel can be an adventure in itself. Two hotels, Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, are located on the resort’s monorail line, which doesn’t require a ticket to board. Almost all the resorts are also accessible by boat (again, no ticket needed), which can be a scenic and relaxing way to get around.

If you want another free Disney World activity, visit the resort’s entertainment district, Disney Springs. During the holidays, you might want to stroll past the shopping center’s 19 Disney-themed trees or visit Santa Claus.

5. Consider an after-hours party instead of a theme park ticket

Walt Disney World offers two sets of after-hours parties this year (both run a handful of nights throughout the season): Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom Park, and Disney Jollywood Nights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Party ticket prices aren’t cheap, as both start at about $160 (and can cost more than $200 on peak nights). In fact, they often cost more than standard theme park tickets. But for certain travelers, they might be a better deal. That’s because capacity is more limited than during the day, typically resulting in shorter ride wait times (eliminating the need to pay for upcharges like Disney Genie+, which offers paid, express line access).

The parties also offer entertainment you can’t find anywhere else, and — at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party — you get complimentary cookies and cocoa.

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

The article 5 Ways to Save Money and Time During the Holidays at Disney World originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Netflix must be doing something right. Killing its own movies’ theatrical prospects prior to streaming, however, isn’t it. It’s stupid, certainly in the case of “Maestro,” the new film from director, co-writer, producer and star Bradley Cooper.

The film is now in limited theatrical release, including the Main Cinema in Minneapolis, with the Netflix streaming premiere arriving Dec. 20.

For a movie made with full, scrutinizing consent of the Leonard Bernstein estate and surviving family members, “Maestro” is considerably more interesting, nuanced and engaging than the usual squaresville biopic. Millions crave Bernstein’s music, and it’s all over the movie, often to striking effect. Bernstein’s legacy remains huge and vital, thanks (for starters) to “On the Town,” “Candide” (the overture alone, taken at the preferable tempo, in the key of wheeee!, is reason enough to rejoice) and “West Side Story.”

Bernstein, known to his friends as Lenny, raced through the time he had. His eternally debated standing as the first 20th-century American superstar conductor, his restless bisexual affairs, his marriages and children … we could go on, and certainly Bernstein did, until his death at 72 in 1990. Any and all parts of his tumult of a life make for juicy cinematic exploration.

Cooper’s second feature as director, following the hit 2018 remake of “A Star is Born,” focuses on Bernstein’s second marriage, in 1951, to actress Felicia Montealegre, played by top-billed Carey Mulligan. After a prologue, Cooper’s screenplay, written with Josh Singer (”Spotlight,” “First Man”), begins in 1943, in a bed. Bernstein, then 25, is assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and itching for more. He gets a phone call: Guest conductor Bruno Walter has the flu and can’t make it. The Carnegie Hall concert must go on, that night. Bernstein takes over, no rehearsal, huge success. The man in Bernstein’s bed at the time is one of many affairs to come.

“Maestro” darts and hops around, bracingly; it’s a little like flipping through a big, stylish scrapbook, more or less but not strictly in chronological order. Bernstein’s first date with the Costa Rican-Chilean Montealegre, a recent New York arrival, is scored to the 1944 Bernstein “Fancy Free” ballet music, the direct inspiration for the Broadway musical “On the Town.” It’s a whirlwind passage on screen, halfway to a musical-theater dream ballet (at one point Cooper as Bernstein becomes one of the three sailors on leave). Early scenes from their lives together, and apart, are shot in black and white; scenes later in the chronology appear in color.

From the start Felicia knew about Lenny’s affairs, and tried to make her peace with them. She also knew she’d be living a life surrounded by acolytes worshipping at what she called “the L.B. altar.” Though Mulligan’s top-billed, the film doesn’t quite justify that; as with Cooper’s “Star is Born,” Cooper as director has a penchant for gently big-footing a final cut out from under his female co-star.

Much of the later parts of “Maestro” deal with Felicia’s cancer and her death at 56, as well as with Bernstein’s compartmentalized lives, at last consumed by the crisis unfolding. Here, “Maestro” rightly slows its tempo. Rather than playing that part of her story as a prolonged exit, Mulligan, who is superb throughout, takes each moment as it comes, and the result is an unusually truthful (as far as I know) depiction of this woman’s painful, complicated farewell.

Earlier in the film, a similarly gripping key sequence focuses on a long-delayed burst of emotion in a sustained single-take argument in the Bernstein’s New York apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It doesn’t looks, feel, act or build like a movie argument; it feels like life, and it’s bracingly well-acted by Mulligan and Cooper. The sight of a huge inflated Snoopy balloon floating by outside the window — it’s Thanksgiving Day — is the perfect ironic complement.

Not everything in the film works on that level. There are times when Cooper’s vocal and physical details as Bernstein at various stages in his life, from his 20s to his early 70s, come off as meticulous mimicry rather than an impression (not the Rich Little kind) of the man. That, plus the extensive and high-grade prosthetics, add up to a lot, though I’m with the Anti-Defamation League’s favorable assessment of Cooper’s controversial Bernstein nose. (The earliest photos of Cooper in costume and makeup did the prosthetics no favors.) Wildly talented in many directions, Cooper still has a few things to learn as a performer about the art and value of processing years of research with a little more selectivity.

The supporting players don’t get much screen time, but they’re excellent: Sarah Silverman as Bernstein’s seen-it-all sister, Shirley, for example, or Matt Bomer as musician David Oppenheim, one of Bernstein’s lovers. The celebrity couple at the heart of “Maestro” was what they used to call “a New York marriage,” at a time when out-and-proud homosexual lives were lived at extreme risk. The movie is discreet, perhaps to a fault, but Cooper captures the seductive hunger and the flamboyance of his subject, who dashed through his years as if guided by the line from “Sweet Smell of Success,” spoken by Tony Curtis: “In brief, from now on, the best of everything is good enough for me.”

Part of “Maestro” stylize the action set to music, akin to the way the undervalued Elton John biopic “Rocket Man” literally levitated its star on the rise in his Los Angeles debut. The peaks of Cooper’s sophomore feature run on the rocket fuel of Bernstein’s particular musical drive. According to daughter Jamie Bernstein’s memoir, Felicia sacrificed a lot — everything, really. The movie doesn’t go that far; even if “Maestro” would’ve been stronger had it concerned itself more with Felicia, that’s not the movie Cooper made. But it doesn’t duck the messy, unresolved contradictions, the way so many movies about famous artists do.

There’s a lot to argue about here, in other words. And “Maestro” is movie enough to have deserved an actual theatrical run prior to the Netflix streaming morass.

‘Maestro’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for some language and drug use)

Running time: 2:09

How to watch: Now in theaters and streaming on Netflix Dec. 20

How sweet it must have been for Nickeil Alexander-Walker on Thursday at Target Center. With Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels sidelined with injuries, the 25-year-old seamlessly stepped into the role of top wing for the Timberwolves.

And Alexander-Walker came through big time, finishing with 20 points, seven assists, five steals and two blocked shots. Oh, and he also drew four offensive fouls. He was a spark plug and a conductor and, at times, the best player on the floor.

Delivering such a performance on any night in the NBA is satisfying for a player. To do it against a team that not only traded you nine months earlier, but often left you on the bench during your tenure there? That’s downright delightful.

There were 26 games last season during his time with the Jazz, a rebuilding team, in which Alexander-Walker either didn’t play or played fewer than five minutes. And on Thursday he was running them off the floor.

“It’s one way to prove your value. I think I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m happy for the way it went, I’m grateful for the way it went, and it felt good for it to be against them,” Alexander-Walker said. “You try not to make it personal, because you want to come out the same way against every team. But I’m human at the end of the day, so it still feels good to win.”

An afterthought in Utah, Alexander-Walker is now vital to Minnesota’s success. He’s the No. 3 wing on what is looking more and more every day like a championship-contending team. And, when Edwards and McDaniels are unavailable, Alexander-Walker consistently proves himself capable of handling even more.

His physical, relentless defense makes simple tasks like dribbling or passing the basketball a rigorous chore for opponents. And his offensive game continues to evolve. He knocked down four three-point shots Thursday while also doing the bulk of the playmaking.

“It’s fun to watch him play. He gives us a ton of juice. When he keeps it simple offensively, he’s really, really good,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He kind of has a habit of getting a little bit excited, and he wants to make a home run, spectacular play, but it’s been great. You can play him on and off the ball. He’s always shot the ball well, and I think that sets up the majority of his game. He’s playing with a lot of confidence for us.”

The excitedness was perhaps more present at the season’s outset. Alexander-Walker was a postseason revelation for Minnesota last spring. Then he was a major contributor for Team Canada over the summer. It’s likely Alexander-Walker pressed a bit at the start of the season to continue to deliver such performances, even in smaller minute loads.

But any early-season struggles, which never negatively impacted his defense, are in the past. Alexander-Walker said he’s “starting to feel comfortable and confident.”

“It’s starting to slow down. I’m not really pressing,” he said. “I think not really paying attention to how I was doing really helped me tonight, and just focusing on trying to win the game.”

That’s a newfound philosophy for the wing.

“Best way to put it is you drive a car, you don’t look at the rearview. You can’t drive only looking at the rearview mirror. Once I heard that, it really stuck with me,” Alexander-Walker said. “Because now you’re just focused on what’s to come, and it’s a lot less pressure and you don’t feel like you’ve got to make the perfect play, to be perfect.”

Alexander-Walker also praised Finch, and the Timberwolves at large, for allowing him to play through mistakes. That has given him confidence and freedom to be himself on the court, which has been evident in some of the highlight-reel passes in transition he has made of late, from behind-the-back dishes to off-the-backboard lobs.

“Being in the present is really resonating,” Alexander-Walker said. “I think it’s just fun at the end of the day. Now that I don’t have to feel that added pressure, I’m just playing the game that I love and those are moments you dream about, getting the crowd going.”

And doing a lot of winning in the process.