The Yellow Line will remain closed for at least the next several days after an embankment gave way late Sunday, shuttering the line that connects Chicago to Skokie, CTA officials said Monday afternoon.

The embankment gave way under a stretch of the track because of a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District construction project.

"The MWRD is sharing information with us on repairs that will help determine a more accurate timeline for service restoration," read the afternoon release.

Shuttle buses will continue to run from the two Yellow Line stops in Skokie to its terminus at the Howard Avenue stop in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, where commuters transfer to the Purple and Red Lines.

The CTA also encouraged riders to consider the 97 Skokie bus, which stops near all three Yellow Line stations.

McCormick Boulevard from Oakton to Howard Streets was closed Monday morning, Skokie officials said in a news release. It was reopened in the early afternoon, according to a release from the Skokie Police Department.

The problem was discovered around 10:15 p.m. Sunday, according to CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase.

An embankment that carries trains along McCormick between Howard and Oakton streets became unstable during a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District construction project, Chase said.

The earth moved on the CTA viaduct across McCormick during the construction of the disinfection project at the O'Brien plant, according to Allison Fore, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District project.

The plant removes pollutants from wastewater, according to the MWRD website. One of seven within the boundaries of the district, it serves 1.3 million people in the northern Cook County suburbs and in Chicago north of Fullerton Avenue.

"The exact cause is unknown and is being investigated," Fore wrote in an email. "The district is working with its contractor and CTA to resolve any issues as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this incident has caused."

While officials said they were trying to make the track safe Monday morning, Skokie commuters scrambled to figure out how to make it to work and school in downtown Chicago.

Marinara Tamayao, a Skokie resident and sophomore at DePaul University, said while waiting for a shuttle at a downtown Skokie stop Monday that she understands that this "kind of stuff happens." Still, she said, it's inconvenient.

"The worst part about this is I'm losing class time and it's close to finals," Tamayao said.

When she received a message from her son that the train was down, Deneise Papillon said she raced to downtown Skokie to give him a ride to DePaul.

"He's going to be late for classes and that's not good," Papillon said. "But what can you do? I'm just glad he's on a shuttle bus now."

Andrew Ramos, of Morton Grove, said he had to call the downtown law firm where he works to tell them he would be late for a morning meeting.

"Not a lot you can do," Ramos said from the Yellow Line shuttle at Dempster where he was waiting Monday. "I don't think we can file a lawsuit."

Randy Miles, owner of Village Inn Pizzeria in downtown Skokie, said that the disruption will also affect his employees who get to the center of town on the Yellow Line and those who use it to go to Cubs games.

"It's very crowded," Miles said of the line.

Last year the Yellow Line celebrated its 50th anniversary. The line starts in a commercial area at Dempster Street and Skokie Boulevard and stops in downtown Skokie before it moves east to Howard. The downtown station at Oakton opened in 2012 next to the Illinois Science and Technology Park, a 24-acre research campus.

The Yellow Line has the smallest ridership of CTA's eight lines, according to online data. Last year, 986,000 passengers entered Yellow Line stations. During weekdays, 2,800 use the Yellow Line, on average.

misaacs@pioneerlocal.com

mmrodriguez@tribpub.com

@SKReview_Mike

@merjourn

This month, with a mix of anxiety and exhilaration, college students across the country will cram their brains for final exams, then pack their bags for home.

It's a little different for undergraduates Malachi Hoye and Caprice Manny. They don't have homes to return to - at least not in the traditional sense. Hoye and Manny are among the estimated 56,000 college students nationwide who are considered homeless.

Those young people are a somewhat broadly defined population that experts say is underreported, gaining more attention and expected to grow. But formal efforts to accommodate homeless college students are relatively new and fragmented: Schools, the federal government, a fledgling national organization - even a pilot project by a Humboldt Park nonprofit - are among the entities trying to solve a complicated challenge.

"I don't have any trust fund anywhere. I don't have any backup money," Manny, 21, said one afternoon in a Humboldt Park apartment where that nonprofit, La Casa Norte, placed her in March. "I don't have anything from any outside sources. It literally is just me. So, if I don't get my crap together, I am just going to be out there."

Manny, who finished her second year at Truman College earlier this month, for years had bounced from the homes of sisters, grandparents and friends, as well as a couple of long-term housing centers, after leaving her mother's home in 2011. She called the rent-free living program "a blessing" that let her focus on 12 credit hours of classes, which met Monday through Thursday at Truman, and juggle jobs at Starbucks, Walgreens and Bath & Body Works.

For students like Manny, homelessness is a circumstance, not an identity or "DNA makeup," said Sol A. Flores, executive director of La Casa Norte.

"Their coping and resiliency skills - their bounce-back - are amazing," she said. "There is still so much more to do, but it is such an opportunity. Not that we owe it to them; we owe it to ourselves."

Before a federal student aid law enacted in 2009 gave financial aid administrators a specific definition of homelessness, it was difficult for colleges and universities to identify and track homeless students, said Cyekeia Lee, director of higher education initiatives at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

In recent years, however, that once-invisible population has come into focus.

For the 2013-14 school year, the most recent data available, 56,224 students were classified as homeless, according to federal financial aid records. A year earlier, the number was 60,000. Illinois has the country's third-largest population of homeless students - about 3,400 last school year - behind California and Texas, the records show.

Homelessness on campuses carries nearly the same definition as it does anywhere else. It generally covers students living in temporary, unstable situations, including friends' or relatives' homes, cars, shelters, parks, abandoned buildings, motels or bus and train stations.

One factor contributing to homelessness on campuses is low-income high school students'"laser focus" on going to college, said Shenay Bridges, assistant dean of students and community resources at DePaul University. They obtain enough financial aid to cover tuition, books and a few related costs but fail to consider remaining expenses, including housing, she said.

"I think people get their heads focused on one plan and when that plan doesn't work out, they find themselves scrambling," said Bridges, adding that the students lack fallback financial support. "Then they're accumulating some debt and it snowballs."

La Casa Norte, a nonprofit started in 2002 to help youths and families confronting homelessness, takes a direct approach in its Youth in College program. The organization established it in 2014 with a $50,000 grant from the city of Chicago.

For years, case managers at La Casa Norte would emphasize education for teenagers who were receiving housing from the nonprofit and get them started in college, said Flores, the organization's director. But when clients aged out of housing programs at 21, they needed to find a place to live, she added. That predicament usually led the young people to quit school to find a job that covered housing costs, she said.

Youth in College - open to clients who have received services from La Casa Norte and who commit to a full-time college program - pays the rent on two apartments where six college students, including Manny, reside.

Administering the program has been difficult, Flores said.

The students have few family relationships, and the typical stresses of college life can trigger anguish that sends them into an emotional tailspin, she said. Two young people in the program have suffered mental breakdowns, she added.

"It's hard," she said. "We still continue to deal with their level of trauma."

Hoye, 20, left his mother's home in the Austin neighborhood at 16 after another in a series of arguments with her, he said. Since then he has stayed at friends' homes, shelters, a hospital, apartments, a Columbia College Chicago dormitory and on the streets.

In March, he and his older brother began living rent-free at El Rescate, an independent living center in Humboldt Park run by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Hoye said he wants to inspire his brother and disprove "my mother's voice in my head telling me you're not going to be (anything)."

Still, there are challenges.

Hoye, who is finishing his second year at Columbia this week, is holding about $9,000 in debt, he said on a recent afternoon at a La Casa Norte youth drop-in center in Humboldt Park. That debt was a major factor in his decision to leave school for now, said Hoye, who plans on paying down debt, finding an apartment and re-enrolling in college after he stabilizes his financial footing.

Until now he has managed to stay in school through federal grants, scholarships, state food aid and a job at a Dunkin' Donuts, Hoye said.

"Ain't nobody else out here doing anything for me and my brother," he said. "If I don't do it, I will be pushing a cart at the expressway, trying to look for change."

Hoye can recall the moment he hit bottom.

In January 2012, he and his brother had left home, exhausted the hospitality of friends, were broke and spent part of the bitter cold night sleeping next to a Metra station on the South Side.

"It hit in my head," Hoye said. "It was time for me to stop playing around, stop being a child. Now it was time to shift and I had to be the adult. So, that's what I did."

It took him more than a year, until he legally became an adult, to take full control of his life, Hoye said. He battled depression so powerful that he considered suicide, but his resolve had been forged.

Manny's low point came after she and her mother were arguing so often in the spring of 2011 that Manny decided to leave, she recalled. Manny believed she was responsible for ruining the relationship with her mom and that she had "messed up" by leaving Simeon Career Academy, she said.

After bouncing from one temporary living situation to another, she started to find stability in Job Corps, a federal education and job training program. She's receiving federal grants to cover her educational costs at Truman, a community college in Uptown. But they don't cover housing.

Like Hoye, Manny's motivation and resilience are based in the knowledge of what they've been through and fear of what might happen.

"I feel like every so often," Manny said, "when I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do" for school and work "... I feel like I get these epiphanies, these flash-forwards, of what my life will be if I don't get my crap together."

She will be allowed to remain in the apartment this summer. If she resumes her full-time student class load in the fall, maintains a 2.0 grade-point average, refrains from unsafe behavior and communicates with her case manager, La Casa Norte will continue to pay her rent.

Advocates for the homeless are pressing for changes to help students like Hoye and Manny.

Federal proposals include charging in-state tuition to homeless and foster youths, giving them priority for federal work-study programs, finding housing for them during school breaks and requiring the Government Accountability Office to make recommendations on improving the educational performance of homeless students.

It also would help if every university and college created a single point of contact, a clearinghouse of services for homeless students that would make college easier to navigate, said Lee, the director of higher education initiatives for homeless youths.

The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth is expanding a network of colleges that have specific programs to help homeless students, she added. About 350 schools in four states have single points of contact, Lee said; another estimated 150 schools in at least nine other states are receiving training in "best practices" to support homeless students, she added.

In April, Lee spoke at a conference of Illinois Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in Peoria to encourage them to join the network.

Smaller efforts are sprouting in Chicago. DePaul in April began offering a "home host program" in which area homeowners offer rooms for free to students who are "housing insecure," a phrase the school uses to characterize students who are homeless or without a long-term place to live.

For Manny and Hoye, college has been a way to move to a more stable life with a better shot at success, even when they were unsure how they would get to college.

They downplay the precariousness of their lives. To handle their hectic schedules, they say time management and an extensive knowledge of public transportation are key.

If Hoye can get back to school by paying down his debt and finding stable housing, he said he would continue studying music business and hopes to break into that field as an R&B singer and producer. Manny said she always has enjoyed writing and is planning to major in English after she completes her studies at Truman and enrolls at a four-year institution. But she is unsure where her major will lead.

Other than that, she said, she feels pretty settled.

"I'm not looking to make a lot of money," Manny said. "I'm really just looking to be comfortable and have a life that I'm proud of and happy with."

tgregory@tribpub.com

Twitter @tgregoryreports

The body of a man was found floating in the Chicago River on Monday morning, police said.

It happened about 9:15 a.m. in the 300 block of West Roosevelt Road in the city's South Loop neighborhood, said Officer Stacey Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department.

The 43-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Police are conducting a death investigation, but no further details were available, she said.

When I reached "Pitch Perfect 2" screenwriter Kay Cannon by phone recently in Los Angeles, she offered a disclaimer.

"I will admit to you freely that I had, um, a really good time at the premiere last night," she said. "Maybe a little bit too much of a good time."

Hungover, I asked?

She laughed. "I'm really fighting the fight. Yeah. I'm a little hungover."

You would never know it. The conversation never flagged, no thoughts were left dangling. We should all be so lucky to have such an animated personality after a night of cocktails.

Some of that might have been honed during her sketch and improv time in Chicago in the late '90s/early 2000s, when she was temping by day, performing at night. An Illinois native, Cannon hit nearly every comedy pit stop in town during this period - Second City, iO Theater, ComedySportz, The Annoyance - either on stage or in the classroom.

That would pave the way for a friendship with fellow Second City and iO alum Tina Fey, who would later hire Cannon as a writer on "30 Rock." Cannon wrote the first "Pitch Perfect" script during her spare time on that show. Her next TV gig was as a writer and producer on "New Girl," and more recently she worked as a consultant on the recently canceled "Cristela."

As a new mother to a daughter, Evelyn (whom she and husband Eben Russell have nicknamed Leni), you might think Cannon would enjoy a bit of down time before diving into her next gig.

You would be wrong. "I have something in television that's very exciting that I can't talk about yet," she said, which means the deal is not quite finalized. But when it becomes official the project will have Cannon at the top, as the creator running the show.

Cannon didn't initially set out to be a writer but it has been a productive path, especially with "Pitch Perfect 2" blowing away the competition in its opening weekend at the box office, bringing in an estimated $70 million - nearly double that of the weekend's big action flick, "Mad Max: Fury Road."

The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Q: You spent most of your 20s as a performer. How did your career shift into writing and producing?

A: I was auditioning a lot in LA and I was actually getting called back a lot for sitcoms. But I wasn't getting jobs. I even tested for "Saturday Night Live" and didn't get that. This was about a year before I got the job on "30 Rock" and I had no idea that, right around the corner, I would end up getting a job writing for a show which is kind of based on the show I had just tested for.

But to back up, I had to start writing because I was realizing that well, I'm sort of ethnically ambiguous-looking.

Q: Was that actual feedback you were getting?

A: Yeah. Also, they knew I was coming from sketch and improv, so there was a little bit of "she's too sketch-y." Also I'm not pretty enough to be their leading lady, but I'm also not character-looking enough to the be the goofball.

Q: Sorry, but this is so strange. You are legitimately pretty! So what are these standards? Do you have to look like Angelina Jolie?

A: I struggle with it even now, not as an actor but as someone who creates television shows. I was just saying to somebody yesterday, the list of comedy ladies that move the needle enough to get a show put on the air is very short, and I find that so frustrating because there are so many funny ladies out there.

But if you ask the people who are making these decisions - the producers and heads of studios - they don't see it that way. And that's what I find so incredibly frustrating. I had heard so many times, before I was a writer and I hear it now, too: "Gosh, there's just not lot of funny women out there who are attractive." And I'd be sitting there like, "Huh?"

Q: So you took your destiny in your own hands?

A: I was like, I have to start writing for myself, to show people what I can do and what my point of view is. So I wrote this TV pilot with my friend Karen Graci, who was in my Second City class, and we're both lovers of football so we wrote this pilot called "Big Foam Finger," about superfans.

I showed that script to Tina and she liked it. I was doing a sketch show at the same time called "Camp Hot," where we were the only girls at camp and therefore the hottest girls at camp, so camp-hot. And I had also written a spec script for "The Office" around this time. I had started writing a lot, just out of necessity. Ultimately that's what helped me get the writing job at "30 Rock."

Q: Acting has been on the back burner, but you do have a cameo in "Pitch Perfect 2."

A: I do! My character's name is Newscaster Connie and I'm a Kelly Ripa-type talk show host.

Q: Why not write a bigger role for yourself?

A: There's just not a lot of ladies my age in the movie itself. It's hard in the "Pitch" world. The role that I would have written for myself would have been Gail, which is the role Elizabeth Banks is playing.

I actually wrote the role of Gail for Kristen Wiig. Elizabeth ended up playing it brilliantly. But on the list of women who were considered for the part, I - having done almost nothing (on camera) - would never get that part. They would always cast it with someone more well-known.

So it's interesting. Even if I had written it for myself, I wouldn't have gotten it! Even if I wrote "The Kay Cannon Show" I would have to audition to play Kay Cannon. And I probably wouldn't get it.

Q: After "30 Rock" your next job was as a writer and producer on "New Girl." Were you writing the script for "Pitch Perfect 2" at the same time?

A: I was working at "New Girl" when I found out there was going to be a "Pitch" sequel. And then I got pregnant. So I ended up having my daughter and going on maternity leave, and that's actually when I wrote "Pitch Perfect 2."

Q: Wait, while you had a newborn? During your maternity leave?

A: Yeah. I said to my husband, the only way I took time off was when I had a C-section, because for two weeks I wasn't allowed to do anything but recover.

But at the time I had sold a sitcom pilot to CBS (which ultimately did not go forward), so I wrote that when I was super pregnant and "Pitch Perfect" when I had the baby. It was a crazy, crazy time.

Q: I'm trying to picture this. Would you be holding your baby and writing at the same time?

A: I would be writing while I was breastfeeding. I didn't want the computer to be too close to her, so it was at an arm's distance away while I was clickety-clack typing away. And breastfeeding - I'm probably giving too much information here - but it didn't come easily for me, so I would be trying to write a joke or a scene and I would be like, "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Q: She was giving you notes.

A: Yeah: "That's not good, mama. You need to delete that."

It was less than a year that I worked on it. I turned in my first draft two months after I had my daughter. She's 19th months today.

Q: When I was doing research I saw that you grew up in Braidwood, Ill. I have to confess I wasn't familiar with Braidwood and had to look it up. It sounds like a small town, only around 5,000 people.

A: Braidwood is very small. It's about an hour and a half southwest of Chicago. But I'm actually from an even smaller township called Custer Park, so Braidwood is like the big city nearby.

In "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (the 1987 John Hughes movie), when they're in the middle of nowhere at a motel? That was filmed in Braidwood. So I grew up in what was deemed the middle of nowhere. But, as is true of most small towns, everyone knew each other and was very supportive and lovely. I'm glad I grew up in a small town, actually.

Q: You come from a big family, the fifth of seven kids, which made me think of something the actor Joel Murray once told me. He grew up as one of nine kids in Wilmette (including brother Bill Murray), and he said it created this specific dynamic at the dinner table where, if you wanted to be heard, you had to be witty and funny.

A: It was very similar for us. At the dinner table you had to ask to be excused, and there were only two reasons why you wouldn't be: If you didn't eat your vegetables, or if you didn't contribute enough to the conversation. So if you were in a bad mood or you had a bad attitude, you had to sit there until you changed your attitude and contributed.

And what happened was, we would have these really long dinners where people wanted to talk. All my siblings are funny in different ways. One's really good at impressions. One's really good at telling jokes. And if you ask them, they would not say I'm the funny one. I was the runt of the family, the shortest and the smallest, so I think they perceived me as the one who was like, "Look at me!" - just trying to get their attention and being a goofball. I think even now they're like, "Wow, she's actually doing this for a living?"

Q: Tina Fey was at "Saturday Night Live" by the time you started doing sketch and improv in Chicago, so how did you two meet?

A: Jason Sudeikis - he's my ex-husband - we were dating all through that time and ended up doing Second City Vegas together. Then he was hired as a writer on "SNL." So he knew Tina and Jeff (Richmond, Fey's husband and a former Second City musical director).

Tina and I, we actually first met on New Year's. I can't even remember what year it was. I was with Jason and she came back to Chicago to be with Jeff, and the four of us spent New Year's together. She didn't look like how she looks now. There was a different look to her; this was back in the days when she was wearing Doc Martens and had short hair.

One of my favorite Tina stories of all time was, it was freezing - as Chicago is on New Year's Eve - and we went and saw Robbie Fulks play. And then it was two in the morning and we're running for our lives, trying to find some place warm to wait for a taxi. There were a bunch of puddles around and Tina was running ahead of me. I had just met her that night. And she turned around and she goes, "Come on, Kay, this way!"

I have always felt like that was the metaphor for our relationship. Where she's constantly turning around and saying, "Come one, Kay! Follow me! I have your back!"

Q: The two of you just clicked.

A: Tina's very shy and I'm not shy at all, so it helps. I think I make her comfortable. When we go places, I can be the one that's doing the dance, so she doesn't have to. I can be the louder one to take some of the pressure off.

Q: One last thing: When I Googled your name, up popped another Kay Cannon who offers services as a "Type A executive coach." Did you know about this?

A: Yes! Oh, her red blazer!

Q: I had to click on it because I wasn't sure if it was something jokey you had put together and obviously it's not. Her specialty is "redefining how Type A's achieve big results without collateral damage." I'm guessing that means teaching Type A personalities not to be jerks.

A: How do I sign up?

nmetz@tribpub.com

Twitter @NinaMetzNews

Chicago's violent weekend began Friday afternoon when, in the span of three hours, three people were shot in Englewood, another person was wounded in East Chatham and an 81-year-old woman and a relative were hit by gunfire as they sat on a porch in Gresham, taking a break from a wake.

It ended early Monday morning in the South Shore neighborhood when a man was shot and seriously wounded just yards from where one man was killed and another wounded hours earlier.

The gunfire scattered two dozen people who had gathered at the murder scene as police drew their weapons and scanned a vacant lot with their flashlights.

About a hundred yards away, they found a 24-year-old man bleeding from wounds to the abdomen and leg, the 49th person to be shot in Chicago over the weekend.

That high a toll is usually seen during the hotter summer months, but Chicago has experienced a 22 percent increase in shooting incidents so far this year. Through May 10, there were 627 shooting incidents, up from 516 for the same year-earlier period, the police department said. Last year saw shooting incidents rise to 2,084, up nearly 12 percent from 1,866 in 2013.

In the last shootings of the weekend, police followed the sound of gunfire and found two wounded men at 78th Street and South Shore Drive around 12:30 a.m. Monday.

One of the men, Morial Ewing, 28, fell against a wrought-iron fence and his legs blocked a gangway between the fence and a yellow-brick apartment building. He had a gun in his hand, police said.

Ewing was dead at the scene, just a mile a half from where he lived in the 8100 block of South Bennett Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The second man, 29 years old, ran into a building and police had to break down a door to get to him after they followed a trail of blood. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial.

Shots rang out as police were still combing the area around 3 a.m. A sergeant called in the gunfire while officers drew their weapons and tried lighting up a vacant lot.

"Got shots being fired, shots being fired, uh, just to the, uh, west of our location, just to the west. Whole bunch of shots," the sergeant said.

"Who was that with the shots fired?" the dispatcher asked.

"420 Robert Squad," the sergeant said. "A whole bunch of shots, uh, maybe, uh, one block, not even half a block, maybe the alley of the, uh, South Shore and Coles."

The sound of people fleeing the scene could be heard over the radio. As the sergeant talked, an officer crouched slightly with his weapon pointed toward the gunfire, a flashlight under the gun illuminating the overgrown lot.  

Officers then ran north with guns drawn and found a wounded man on 78th Place. He was wheeled into an ambulance and taken in serious condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.

Officers found a BB gun not far from the man, but police said it was not the weapon used to shoot him. He wasn't cooperating with investigators, police said.

As police investigated both shooting scenes, officers started chasing someone through a lakefront path about 150 feet away. Police said it appeared the person was loading a magazine into a gun.

Officers ran south toward the path, and a supervisor asked if the officers wanted a helicopter. No helicopter was available, but after a few minutes police brought someone out of the wooded area.

No gun was recovered. But as the sun rose over the lake and the city skyline came into view, police alerted supervisors that they had found a box of ammunition and the man's clothing. Charges were pending, police said.

At least 49 people were shot, two of them fatally, since Friday afternoon in Chicago. Twenty-two people were shot Friday night into early Saturday and another 18 were shot late Saturday morning into Sunday.

The violent weekend comes on top of a 22 percent increase in shooting incidents so far this year. Through May 10, there were 627 shooting incidents, up from 516 for the same year-earlier period, the department said.

Last year saw shooting incidents rise to 2,084, up nearly 12 percent from 1,866 in 2013.

Aside from the three men shot in the South Shore neighborhood early Monday, six others were wounded on the South Side since Sunday afternoon.

-- A 14-year-old boy was shot in the Pilsen neighborhood about 12:30 a.m. Monday and was taken to Stroger Hospital. He was shot in the 1700 block of West 21st Street and suffered a hand wound.

-- A 22-year-old man was shot about 12:10 a.m. Monday in the 6100 block of South Bishop Street in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Details about that shooting weren't immediately available but the man was hit in the leg and is said to be in good condition at Stroger Hospital, according to police.

-- About 20 minutes earlier late Sunday, in the 5800 block of South Morgan Street in the Englewood neighborhood, a 25-year-old man was shot in the abdomen. Police said the man was on a porch when he heard shots and felt pain. Police taped off the front of the brown brick two-flat apartment building to guard the crime scene. It appeared that someone had shot up the house.

-- Earlier at about 8:15 p.m. Sunday, a man involved in a fight in the West Englewood neighborhood was dropped off at Holy Cross Hospital after someone shot him in the leg in the 7300 block of South Claremont Avenue, police said. A friend took him to the hospital but the man, 25, was eventually transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with a gunshot wound to the leg. He's in serious condition, police said.

-- At 6 p.m. Sunday, someone shot a 23-year-old man in the arm and back in the 7000 block of South Emerald Avenue in Englewood, said Officer Veejay Zala, a Chicago Police Department spokeswoman. Paramedics took him in serious condition to Christ Medical Center, Zala said.

-- Earlier Sunday, a 22-year-old man was shot at 12:20 p.m. on the 400 block of West 65th Place in the Englewood neighborhood, police said. The man was outside when a male walked up and shot him in the right arm, police said. The victim was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.

In what likely will shape up to be the most violent weekend so far this year, 49 people were shot-two fatally-in a stretch lasting from Friday afternoon to early morning Monday. Chicago police wouldn't talk about what may have caused the outbreak in violence scattered across the city, but at least one expert believes there's a correlation between the mercury rising and the large number of shootings. This weekend was the hottest-with temperature hitting 79 on Saturday and 82 on Sunday-so far this year, according to the National Weather Service.

Here's what you need to know about this weekend's violence.

>> The vast majority of shootings happened on the South and West sides, except for two shootings farther north in Logan Square and Uptown.

>> Out of the 49 people shot, two had died as of Monday afternoon: a 24-year-old man shot in the University Village neighborhood early Saturday morning and a 28-year-old man shot dead in South Shore at about 12:30 a.m. Monday.

>> The weekend's warm weather likely contributed to the rash of shootings, according to Dr. Ellen G. Cohn, a criminologist at Florida International University who has extensively studied the relationship between weather and crime. "There has been a lot of research between different kinds of weather conditions and all different kinds of criminal behavior," Cohn said. "The one weather variable that fairly consistently shows a relationship between most kind of crime is temperature." Heat doesn't cause crime, she said, but "people just tend to be more relaxed in the summer; people have more opportunity to interact"-and drink. That combination of factors can lead to Chicago's bloody summer homicide tallies.

>> Comparatively few shootings occurred during daylight hours.

>> Shootings citywide are up significantly over last year specifically. There were 22 percent more shootings through May 10 of this year than during the same period of 2014, the Tribune found. Through all of 2014, shootings rose 12 percent over 2013.

>> So far this year, 140 homicides have been reported, according to a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data. Just 127 killings were reported through May 18 of 2014.

Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page. 

Jon Hamm called it "our fourth goodbye," but for him and the rest of the cast and crew of AMC's "Mad Men," it was the final and, unquestionably, the longest farewell.

In a daylong blowout that combined an almost defiant air of celebration (Sad? Who? Us?) with the inevitable anguish ("Tomorrow morning, everyone's going to be like, 'Who are you?'" fretted show creator Matthew Weiner), the "Mad Men" gang on Sunday bopped between a two-hour-plus panel discussion in Hollywood and a Jason Reitman-led live reading at downtown's Ace Hotel. That was followed by an Ace screening of the series finale and a party that, for all we know, might still be raging at the hotel's bar.

"We are always the last to leave our own parties," Weiner told The Times. Earlier, "completely sober and incapable of functioning," he introduced the finale: "This is the last episode of 'Mad Men.' I will be in the audience watching. Leave me alone afterwards if you don't like it."

Solitude would have to wait. Judging from the parade of well-wishers approaching Weiner after the closing credits, the ending to the series' celebrated seven-season, 92-episode run was well received from those attending the event. Reaction on social media, however, was all over the map. The only area of agreement: Coca-Cola executives went to bed smiling.

The show's swan song, titled "Person to Person" (and, if you haven't watched, you should skip to the next paragraph), resolved some questions (Peggy gets a man! Joan starts a new business!) while leaving a few plotlines open-ended. The final image of Hamm's once (and future?) ad executive Don Draper sitting cross-legged on a (presumably) Big Sur cliffside meadow with the famous 1971 commercial "I'd Like to Buy a World a Coke" playing in his head seemed perfect to some, frustrating to others.

Weiner has been barraged with questions about the finale since 2011, when the show fixed the seventh season as its last. As he worked on "The Sopranos," comparisons between the shows were inevitable.

"'The Sopranos' was very rock and roll, and that was a very rock-and-roll ending. This is more 'Theme From "A Summer Place,"'" Weiner told The Times, referring to the Percy Faith hit.

The Reitman live table reading of the first-season finale, "The Wheel," preceded the screening. Among those assuming the roles of the '60s-set drama were Colin Hanks as Don Draper, Fred Savage as Pete Campbell, Kevin Pollak as Bertram Cooper and Ashley Greene as Joan Holloway. Savage's spot-on work as Campbell drew the biggest applause.

Hours earlier, all the primary cast members - Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, Jessica Paré and Kiernan Shipka - participated in a Q&A at Hollywood's Montalbán theater, with Weiner and members of the production team following for their own panel. Each actor picked a favorite clip and talked about its significance. Slattery revealed he hadn't even seen the scene he chose because he wants to binge-watch all the episodes from the back end of Season 7.

Weiner seemed happy enough on stage, reporting that his son, Marten (who played Glen Bishop on the show), came home from college for the day's events and that both families (blood and professional) were helping him deal with what Hamm called the "finality of it all."

"Someone asked me what the day is like and I said, 'It feels like Thanksgiving,'" Weiner said. "It feels like we're getting dressed up. We're gonna have a drink around 3. Open the door, let the relatives in and not forget what the day is about, which is being grateful for having this incredible experience."

As for what tomorrow will be like, Hamm shook his head and laughed. "I'm gonna be an astronaut and that starts Monday, so I should go "

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yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Maya Rudolph brought friends Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce up on stage with her, figuratively speaking, when she gave Tulane University's graduating Class of 2015 a commencement speech that expounded on the virtues of saying, "Yes, and ..."

The New Orleans university had a treat for the "Saturday Night Live" alum before she opened her mouth, however. Tulane's Green Envy a cappella group serenaded her with its take on "Lovin' You," the most famous song by her late mother, Minnie Riperton.

"You just blew my mind. I am so honored. You're going to make me cry, and I'm supposed to be funny," the actress said Saturday. "This is going to be interesting."

And interesting it was, as Rudolph shared the magic of "Yes, and ...," a core tenet of the Groundlings improvisational troupe, a hotbed for training comedic talent in Los Angeles.

The idea is, she said, "to say yes, and not just yes but to add information. So in the adding of information you don't negate the other person's idea, but in fact you build on it."

Not a bad way to go through life, eh?

For example, if the president of the university told her she was Oprah Winfrey, it would be much better if she said yes, and -- well, launched into an Oprah impression (around the 11:30 mark in the video).

"Today, Class of 2015," she bellowed, "look under your seats because you are all leaving here today with a college diplomaaaaaa! You get a diploma, you get a diploma, you get a diploma and you sir, you get a diploma. We're all getting diplomaaaaaas!"

Though Rudolph's own diploma came from UC Santa Cruz, she has ties to Tulane: Her dad Richard Rudolph graduated in 1968 and her cousin Sabrina Rudolph is Class of '15 -- and got roundly teased when Maya made her stand up and wave to the entire Superdome.

Though she did advise graduates to take as many bikini pictures as they could now, while their bodies were still smokin' hot, the speech wasn't all comedy.

"If I must give any of you advice, it would be this: Say 'Yes.' Say 'Yes and,' and create your own destiny," Rudolph said. "Hold on to your old friends. Kiss your mama. Admit what your dreams are. Don't beat yourself up if you don't know what you're going to do tomorrow, but work hard and don't be lazy. And put away your damn iPhone once in a while.

"And also, be nice to jerks because we still don't know the criteria for getting into heaven yet. Now go make your parents proud and figure out how to end global warming."

And then, because she could, and because they were in the Superdome for gosh sakes, Rudolph asked everyone to rise again for the national anthem -- which she then spent about four minutes, starting at the 14:15 mark, performing as Beyonce.

Yes -- and she was sure to include a little bit of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Single Ladies." Check it all out for yourself, above.

Follow Christie D'Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.

Daniel Krupa says his arrest at Wrigley Field has been "blown out of proportion."

But a judge is taking it seriously enough to ban the 20-year-old from Wrigley for allegedly taking a swing at off-duty Chicago police officers who were escorting him out of the stadium during Sunday's game against the Pirates.

Krupa "appeared intoxicated" as he was led away by the three officers, who were working security at Wrigley, according to a police report. He poked an officer in the chest and hit another officer on the side of the head, according to the report.

The officers performed an "emergency take-down," and Krupa was arrested, the report said. He was charged with felony aggravated battery to a peace officer, criminal trespass, three counts of resisting arrest and two counts of theft.

Authorities said the theft charges stemmed from two IDs Krupa had that belonged to people over 21.

During a hearing in bond court Monday, Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. told Krupa he was banning him from Wrigley Field until his case is resolved, according to Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti.

Krupa, when reached by phone, said, "I just think that it's been kind of blown out of proportion."

A local man who was taken to the emergency room after eating a "defective" Chicken McNugget at a Chicago McDonald's filed a lawsuit on Monday against the fast food chain and others, according to court documents.

Zebadiah Anderson, identified only as a Cook County resident, bought Chicken McNuggets in May 2013 from a McDonald's restaurant at 10 E. Chicago Ave., according to the suit. One of the nuggets, it claims, had one or more sharp bone shards that caused Anderson "severe injury" when he swallowed it.

Afterward, Anderson required medical attention and was rushed to the emergency room via ambulance, according to the suit.

"The Subject Chicken McNugget constituted an unreasonably dangerous product when put to use for which it was intended, in that it could not be consumed with safety and without the risk of impaling and/or cutting the consumer in the mouth, tongue and/or throat, and potentially causing additional damage to the stomach, digestive track and intestines of the consumer, due to the sharp bone shards contained therein," the lawsuit said.

The suit contends that McDonald's employees failed to inspect and test the Chicken McNugget in question for bone fragments prior to serving it to Anderson.

The meat supplier Tyson and the Chicago Avenue franchise were named as defendants in the suit as well.

"While I have not seen a lawsuit, I take the safety of food served in my restaurants very seriously and will investigate this claim," said franchise owner and operator Nick Karavites.

Tyson did not return a request for comment Monday evening.

tbriscoe@tribpub.com

Twitter @_TonyBriscoe

Brookfield Zoo Tuesday announced the birth of an okapi calf at the West Suburban animal park, the 27th successful okapi born there, the zoo said in a statement. The calf, named Will, was born April 21 and is currently off exhibit but visible in a live video feed at the zoo's "Habitat Africa! The Forest."

At about three months, he is expected to join other okapi, forest-dwelling giraffe relatives, on exhibit. His mother is Augusta K., a four-year-old first-time mother, the sire is Hiari, and the mating was recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquarium Species Survival Plan for the breed. There are more than 90 okapi at 23 North American institutions. The first North American birth of the species took place at Brookfield in 1959.

Associated Press

Darrell Hammond, an alum of "Saturday Night Live," has been hired to portray Colonel Sanders, the white-haired white-suited founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, in TV commercials that debut Monday.

KFC said it was resurrecting the Colonel, who died in 1980, to help celebrate its 75th anniversary. On "SNL," Hammond impersonated public figures such as President Bill Clinton and actor Sean Connery.

KFC's announcement comes less than two weeks after Oak Brook-based McDonald's gave a makeover to its '70s-era mascot Hamburglar.

"The Colonel has always been at the core of everything we do here at Kentucky Fried Chicken," Kevin Hochman, chief marketing officer for KFC in the U.S., said in a statement. "The 75th anniversary is the perfect time to give him back to the people."

Hammond is unrecognizable as Sanders in the 47-second spot, which KFC posted to its Twitter stream, @kfc.

Here's the script:

"Howdy, folks. It's me, Colonel Sanders. I've been gone for awhile, and boy, have things changed. Nowadays you've got your international space station. Your double-sided tape. Your cargo pants. You seen these pants? That's too many pockets. But what you don't always seem to have these days is my Kentucky fried chicken. Well, I'm here to change that, folks. I'm here to make sure my chicken is still as tasty and delicious as it ever was. I'm Colonel Sanders, and I'm back, America. It's still finger-licking good."

KFC is owned by Yum! Brands Inc. of Louisville, Ky. Sales at KFC division stores open at least a year increased 5 percent in the latest quarter, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

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Twitter @beckyyerak

Chicagoans interested in appearing on "The Bachelor" can apply in person when the ABC dating show hosts a casting call in the city this summer. The casting call is scheduled for July 11 at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago hotel, which is the same hotel where the show hosted a casting call last July.

Applicants must be 21 or older and, in case it's not obvious, single. Both men and women are encouraged to attend.

The current season of "The Bachelorette" premiered Monday with three Chicagoland contestants competing on the show, including Batavia High School alum Clint Arlis, who received the first one-on-one date. On last season's "Bachelor," Iowa farmer Chris Soules chose Highland Park nurse Whitney Bischoff during the final rose ceremony.

"The Bachelor" casting call

When: 1-5 p.m. July 11
Where: The Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago hotel; 909 N. Michigan Avenue

lgomez@tribpub.com

Twitter @TribLuis

Facebook @TribLuis

The CTA Yellow Line that serves commuters between Skokie and Chicago will remain closed for the rest of the week, officials said Tuesday.

In the meantime the CTA, the village of Skokie, ComEd and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago are working together to discuss short- and long-term reconstruction plans, according to Allison Fore, spokeswoman for MWRD.

"The immediate plan is to stabilize the area and build the bank back up to allow ComEd to make repairs and to ensure no further deterioration of the site," Fore wrote in an email Tuesday. "Crews are working 24 hours per day in order to get the trains running."

Officials hope to have a better idea of when the line will open later this week, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said.

The line was closed late Sunday night when an embankment collapsed along McCormick Boulevard between Howard and Oakton streets in Skokie. The collapse was due to a failure of the earth retention system during the construction of the disinfection facility at the O'Brien Water Reclamation Plant, Fore said.

Between 9:20 and 9:40 p.m. Sunday, Yellow Line operators notified the CTA control center of a small bend in the rail and of downed power lines, Chase said. It is unclear whether the embankment had already given way. Rail service was suspended and replaced by shuttle bus service soon after.

The CTA will continue to offer shuttle service for Yellow Line riders, Chase said Tuesday. The CTA is also encouraging riders to consider the 97 Skokie bus.

The Yellow Line has the smallest ridership of the CTA's eight lines, according to online data. Last year, 986,000 passengers entered Yellow Line stations. During weekdays on average, about 2,900 use the line.

mmrodriguez@tribpub.com

@merjourn

The discovery of personalized Wrigley Field pavers near a downstate landfill created a brief dust-up Tuesday before officials with the Cubs stepped in to say they had told buyers earlier this year that the bricks, advertised as permanent fixtures, would be replaced by next season.

"As we communicated to paver owners in March, due to the Wrigley Field construction schedule, it was required we remove some of the original pavers," an email by the Cubs sent Tuesday evening read. "It was also apparent that many, if not all of the pavers, would be damaged during the removal process, which is why we did not make them available to owners and committed to providing new personalized pavers."

In March, the Cubs sent an email informing those who bought pavers that all of the roughly 12,000 bricks would be replaced by 2016's Opening Day outside the Budweiser Bleachers along Sheffield and Waveland avenues.

The team launched the program in 2006, advertising the bricks for $160. The purchase also includes a replica brick for the buyer to keep.

The pavers scare reached critical mass early Tuesday, when the Daily Leader of Pontiac reported that some of the bricks destined for an area landfill were springing up around the city, located about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.

Cubs officials said Tuesday they weren't sure how many of the bricks were involved. Republic Services, a company the team hired to dispose of the bricks, said it will conduct an internal investigation into the matter though it believes they were taken from the landfill "by unknown individuals without authorization."

"Today, we learned that an unknown number of pavers made it outside the chain of supervision," a statement by Republic Services said Monday. "We are taking the sensitivity of this unfortunate incident very seriously, and we have initiated an internal review.

"We understand that the pavers have significant sentimental value," the statement continues. "For many fans, the pavers represent personal tributes or memorials to loved ones."

Suzanne Terrell, 45, of Walker, La., told the Tribune she was contacted by the Daily Leader and was told that one of the discarded pavers was one she had purchased. A gift to her mother, it included an inscription with Terrell's late father's name and a reference to the 1984 team.

"He always went to Cubs games as a kid growing up in Cicero," Terrell said. "In 1984, it was one of the first times I went to games with him, and we really bonded over that. I wanted a keepsake to remember it in Wrigley Field.

"I would like to get it back. The original paver has meaning to me, but replacing it is the important part."

tbriscoe@tribpub.com

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Twitter @_tonybriscoe

Twitter @ltaford

Chicago-area gamers looking to take their Nintendo skills to the next level have a chance to qualify in Schaumburg for the Nintendo World Championships next month in Los Angeles.

Competitors - 750 slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis - will square off May 30 at the Best Buy, 900 E. Golf Rd., in Schaumburg. The competitor with the highest score from the Schaumburg store and the winners from seven other Best Buy stores around the country will move on to the Nintendo World Championships on June 14.

Nintendo will choose an additional eight competitors to send to the championships, which will be a multi-round competition featuring a variety of Nintendo games, Best Buy spokesman Shane Kitzman said.

In the qualifying round, gamers will play Ultimate NES Remix for Nintendo 3DS, which puts a twist on classic Nintendo games. Players will have to get their highest score on "remixes" of  Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 and Dr. Mario.

Competitors, ages 13 and up, will be able to play from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m., May 30.

Kitzman said the Schaumburg store was picked to host a qualifying round because it is considered a flagship store in the Chicago area. Outside of Schaumburg, the closest store hosting a qualifier is in the Minneapolis area.

Organizers of the embattled Riot Fest announced Wednesday they're moving the show to Chicago's Douglas Park on Chicago's Southwest Side.

As first reported by RedEye, Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) didn't want Riot Fest to return to Humboldt Park, where the 3-day concert has been held for the past three years, because of the damage to the park and disruption to park activities in the aftermath of last year's fest.

Repairs related to last September's fest continued this month at the Northwest Side park, whose boundaries are North Avenue to the north, Division Street to the south, California Avenue to the east and Kedzie Avenue to the west.

"I don't know what they could have done to convince the majority of the residents of the 26th Ward that they didn't want to come back because of the degree of disruption that occurred in the park and the conditions in which the park was left," Maldonado said on Wednesday.

Riot Fest outgrew Humboldt Park, he said, adding that Douglas Park could be a more fitting venue for the festival. "I was very hopeful along the way that the residents of the 26th Ward were going to be successful in stopping Riot Fest from coming again to Humboldt Park," he said.

Mayor Emanuel said after a City Council meeting on Wednesday that he's glad Riot Fest has made Chicago its home but that organizers will be held accountable to restore the park after the festival, which is planned for Sept 11-13.

"I think the people that organize the festival now know to stay in Chicago - which is their desire and that's a good thing - they have to do it in a way that makes them good citizens and good residents and contribute back," he said.

Emanuel said he expects the festival to leave Douglas Park in as good a shape as when they found it before setting up.

"I don't think it's in their best interest to have a second park say we don't want you in Chicago. So they've been put on notice to be a better citizen in holding this festival because if you go O for 2 we don't have a three strike rule in the city of Chicago," he said.

On Wednesday, Riot Fest's top boss celebrated the move to the city's North Lawndale community and seemed happy to be working with a new alderman - George Cardenas, whose 12th ward includes Douglas Park. In a news release issued Wednesday morning, Michael Petryshyn, founder of Riot Fest, said Cardenas "gets it" when it comes to logistics as well as how the event can help the community. 

"In my very first meeting with Alderman Cardenas, I was happy that we were discussing logistical details and how we could enrich the community. Quite frankly, I was silently ecstatic. He wanted to know more about staging, production, staffing and myriad small details many elected officials would never think to ask. Analytical minds in the festival world are a commodity and I was impressed with how Alderman Cardenas saw the big picture in the details," Petryshyn was quoted as saying in a news release.

"He gets it and it was genuine," Petryshyn said.  "And that's half the battle when staging a festival.  We are so very excited to get to know our new neighbors and to work with them to hold an event that is beneficial to the community, local businesses and the residents.  Essentially, everything we have brought to Humboldt Park over the last three years."

Bordered roughly by Roosevelt Road to the north, 19th Street to the south, Albany Avenue to the west and California Avenue to the east, Douglas Park is south of Humboldt Park. It's about a 10-minute drive from Humboldt Park, near the CTA's Pink Line train stop at California and within walking distance to the Lagunitas Taproom.

On Wednesday, Cardenas said he doesn't think security or transportation will be a problem given proximity to the CTA and wide Ogden Avenue. But what about damage to the park itself?

"Well, damage is going to be damage, but can it be controlled? The Park District assured me that that's easy to resolve, based on their experience with also providing a home to other fests, nothing different than the fests they already do in Grant Park and so forth near the lake," he said.

The 218-acre park features formal gardens, a lagoon, a golf course, artificial turf field, soccer field, baseball diamonds, tennis and basketball courts, outdoor pool, football stadium and a grand ballroom, according to the park district. Collins Academy High School, a Chicago Public School, is located within the park too.

Park damage is a concern for neighborhood activist Valerie Leonard, 51, who was born and raised in North Lawndale. She isn't opposed to a large-scale festival in Douglas Park but worries that the punk rock fest will leave the park in bad shape, increase traffic and, most of all, won't appeal to the people who live near the park.

"From what I'm hearing, this does not sound like a huge win for the community," she said. "There should be some public hearing to get a sense for what the community thinks about this."

The alderman said he hopes the festival will help boost business in the neighborhood.

A handful of fast food restaurants line Cermak Road a couple blocks south of the park. Three train stops away at 18th Street is Pilsen where hot spots such as Dusek's Board and Beer, Thalia Hall and Simone's Bar are within one mile.

"It should help our Cermak area, restaurants and businesses. It will attract new businesses, because there's a lot of people that are going to be coming to that area," Cardenas said.

Riot Fest, which is also held in Denver and Toronto, was recently named the best festival in the U.S. by USA Today. RedEye is a sponsor of Riot Fest this year and was last year.

Organizers plan to release the festival's lineup next week.

Douglas Park is a good spot for Riot Fest because of the park's open space, according to Cardenas. "It's good for them to have a fest. They play soccer in that field so it has to be replaced every year. It may be a benefit, really, to that park, because we're going to be constantly improving that park for the benefit of the community," he said.

Chicago Tribune's John Byrne and RedEye's Megan Crepeau contributed.