Caterpillar Moving Corporate HQ From Peoria To Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — After nearly a century in central Illinois, Caterpillar Inc. has abandoned plans to build a new headquarters complex in Peoria, and has announced it is moving its corporate offices to Chicago.

“Caterpillar’s Board of Directors has been discussing the benefits of a more accessible, strategic location for some time,” Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby said in a statement Tuesday. “Since 2012, about two-thirds of Caterpillar’s sales and revenues have come from outside the United States. Locating our headquarters closer to a global transportation hub, such as Chicago, means we can meet with our global customers, dealers and employees more easily and frequently.”

Caterpillar said it expects about 300 employees eventually will be based at its new headquarters in Chicago once it is fully operational. The vast majority of its employees and operations will remain in Peoria, which has been the company’s hometown for more than 90 years.

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said he’s disappointed some Caterpillar jobs will be leaving for Chicago, but he said he’s pleased the overwhelming majority of employees will be staying.

“If Caterpillar succeeds globally, we win in Central Illinois. I’m disappointed we can’t keep every job here, but if moving some of its team near Chicago helps Caterpillar thrive, it will benefit Peoria, our county and the surrounding communities,” said Peoria County Board Chairman Andrew Rand.

The construction and mining equipment company has been suffering falling sales in recent months, because its customers have been hurt by lower oil prices, and slower economic growth, forcing them to buy less equipment.

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LeBron James Eviscerates Charles Barkley, Citing His Past Off-Court Missteps

(CBS) Cavaliers star LeBron James has grown tired of criticism from TNT analyst Charles Barkley and fired back in kind.

James called Barkley “a hater,” questioned his credentials for having his television platform and criticized Barkley’s missteps during his Hall of Fame career that preceded him becoming an entertaining and at-times polarizing analyst.

James’ comments followed Barkley recently saying that James was “inappropriate” to question the Cavaliers organization’s commitment to winning, which James did as part of a message in which he cited his desire for Cleveland to acquire another “playmaker.” Barkley pointed out that the Cavaliers have the “highest payroll in NBA history” and have ceded to James’ wishes each of the past two summers to dole out big money to key players like J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Tristan Thompson, in addition to recently trading for sharpshooter Kyle Korver. Years ago, Barkley had also called it a “punk move” when James left the Cavaliers for the Heat in 2010.

“I’m not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that,” James told ESPN.com. “I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said, ‘I’m not a role model.’ I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying.

“All I’ve done for my entire career is represent the NBA the right way. Fourteen years, never got in trouble. Respected the game. Print that.”

James also made a reference to ESPN.com that Barkley would like to be retired, but “he can’t,” an apparent shot at the 53-year-old Barkley needing the financial compensation. James has also grown upset by those with an old-school mindset like Barkley of criticizing him for his close relationship with foes Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.

“Go watch the ’93 Finals when John Paxson hit the shot,” James said, per ESPN.com. “Barkley and (Michael) Jordan were laughing and joking with each other during one of the games while somebody’s shooting a free throw. In the Finals. But, oh, nobody were friends back then.”

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The Bernstein Brief: Only One First Time For Northwestern

By Dan Bernstein–
CBSChicago.com senior columnist

(CBS) When their name appears on CBS on Selection Sunday, the cheers will roll as history is made. It should be only fait accompli at that point, considering that the Northwestern Wildcats are now a ranked team at 18-4 and 7-2 in the Big Ten, but their first-ever tournament appearance should and will be noted properly.

And then it’s not cute anymore.

So appreciate it while it still is, before improved facilities and more consistent recruiting raise the bar to a point where a real postseason becomes reasonable annual expectation rather than novelty. This is the fun time, when it’s all gravy, all house money.

If coach Chris Collins is really doing this as correctly as it currently appears, Northwestern basketball being good is soon going to stop being its own story.

Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score’s “Bernstein and Goff Show” in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter  @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.

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Will County Police Chaplain Retiring After 40 Years

CHICAGO (CBS) — The Will County Sheriff’s Police chaplain is retiring Wednesday, after more than 40 years working with law enforcement.

“Law enforcement was different 40 years ago than it is today,” said Father Vytas Memenas. “The cops today are ambushed.”

Memenas, 87, said in all the different police departments he worked with through the years, family problems were common.

“I told a few of them, ‘Do you want to stay with your wife or you go to your mistress?” he said.

Sometimes, “In the end, it was the mistress.”

“The cops used to tell me how many unfaithful guys in the department, and during my years, I had 50 divorces,” he said. “I just saved one marriage out of all the people that came to me, because they went too far; could not be saved.”

Memenas said he will miss his job.

“Riding in a squad car when everything is fine, honky-dory, you’re happy,” he said. “But when you go to wakes and the funerals of law enforcement officers, you think about your own mortality, and you think that life passes too fast.”

The chaplain has had more than his share of conversations about death.

“I tell them as I tell the people in the parish, ‘I have no explanation why God took away your husband who was only 40 years old, died of cancer,'” he said. “My philosophy is be prepared. Some people live to 90. I buried a lot of them that did not make 60. Strictly speaking, our lives are in the hand of God.”

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QB Legacy Tracker: Can Matt Ryan Lead Falcons To First Super Bowl Win Franchise History?

By Shawn Lealos

When the Atlanta Falcons drafted Matt Ryan with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, they hoped he would be their savior after losing Michael Vick. While he started out on fire, things took a while to finally reach the point they did in 2016, when Ryan finally led the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl. With the journey to the big game finally reached, it is now time to see if Ryan can take the last step and win it all for his team. Here is a look at the blossoming legacy of Matt Ryan heading into Super Bowl 51.

A Star as a Rookie

Matt Ryan was a star in college, playing for Boston College for four seasons and watching none other than this weekend’s opposing quarterback, Tom Brady, as he played close by. When Ryan made it to the NFL, the Falcons were desperately looking for a new quarterback. They made him the fourth overall draft pick in 2008 and paid him a huge contract, starting him from the first game of the season.

In his rookie season, Ryan threw for 3,440 yards with 16 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. That season, both Ryan and Joe Flacco led their respective teams to the playoffs, the first rookie quarterbacks to ever reach this achievement. Ryan won the NFL Rookie of the Year award, but lost in the playoffs to Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals.

13-Win NFL Season

Although he missed the playoffs in his second season—despite finishing with a winning record—Matt Ryan had the Atlanta Falcons back in the playoffs in his third season after winning an NFC-best 13 wins. That made the Falcons the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and they looked strong. The 13 wins helped Ryan set an Atlanta Falcons team record, and he also set franchise records in attempts (571) as well as completions (357). He threw 28 touchdowns and had a low nine interceptions.

However, the Falcons once again couldn’t win in the playoffs and lost to the Green Bay Packers in their first playoff game that postseason. In 2011, Ryan threw for 4,177 yards with 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions and made it back to the playoffs, only to lose to the New York Giants in the wild-card game. Ryan was developing a reputation as someone who couldn’t win in the playoffs.

First Playoff Win

Finally, in 2012, Ryan won his first playoff football game. He opened up the season hot, leading the Falcons to a franchise-best eight wins to start the season. He broke his own records with 422 completions for 4,719 yards and 32 touchdowns, and also topped his career best in completion percentage at 68.6. The Falcons got a first round bye again and this time took advantage of it by beating the Seattle Seahawks. However, Atlanta’s season ended when they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship after Ryan sprained the AC joint in his shoulder.

A Big Contract Leads to a Big Slump

With his first playoff win, the Atlanta Falcons knew they had a winner in Matt Ryan and rewarded him with a $103.75 million contract in 2013. That season, Atlanta only won four games and things looked bleak. In 2014, Atlanta only won six games, despite Matt Ryan playing strong, and the Falcons fired head coach Mike Smith. In 2015, Atlanta only won eight games and missed the playoffs for the third year in a row.

An MVP Performance Leading to the Super Bowl

Matt Ryan finally turned things back around in 2016. While some have called for Tom Brady to win the NFL MVP, it is Matt Ryan who deserves it. Ryan led the NFL in passer rating with 117.1 and threw for a career-high 4,944 yards and 38 touchdowns with a career-low seven interceptions. Only the Dallas Cowboys had a better record in the NFC than Atlanta.

When the playoffs came, Ryan proved he had forgotten – or learned from – the past and he dominated in the playoffs. Atlanta beat up the Seattle Seahawks, 36-20, and then blew out the Green Bay Packers, 44-21, to make the Super Bowl. Ryan had an astonishing 132.5 passer rating with seven touchdowns and no interceptions in the two games and he now has Atlanta on the brink of winning the first Super Bowl in franchise history. 

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QB Legacy Tracker: Tom Brady Only Gets Better With Age

By Danny Cox

Super Bowl LI will have the New England Patriots taking on the Atlanta Falcons in a match-up of the two best teams from the 2016 NFL season. That is what happens every season, but teams achieve greatness in different ways – strong defense, incredible running back, amazing coaching. In the case of these two teams, it’s phenomenal passing offenses and two of the greatest signal-callers to ever play in the NFL.

Taking away his rookie season and 2008, Brady has played in almost every single game of each year during his 17-year professional career. In 2001, he played in 15 of 16 games. This season, he missed the first four games of the season due to a suspension for the Deflategate debacle that dominated the headlines last year. Even with those four games missing from his 2016 regular season stats, Brady was still able to put himself right in the MVP race without any problem at all.

Case in point: He set a single-season record for best touchdown-to-interception ratio after throwing 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Before this season, his career low for interceptions in a season where he played more than one game was back in 2010, when he threw only four.  And 2016 marked the sixth regular season in which Brady had single-digit interceptions while playing 12 or more games. Believe it or not, he didn’t have a single-digit interception season in his first eight years in the league.

That’s just a little more proof that he keeps getting better the older he gets.

Despite all of the distractions from the past season and his suspension this season, Brady did not allow those troubles to get in his head or bother any of his teammates. You can’t help but see that every single player on the Patriots feeds off of him and only gets better because Brady is their leader. Brady knows how to get the very best out of his teammates.

Looking back throughout his career, it is hard to doubt these statistics as greatness:

• Super Bowl appearances – 7 (Including Super Bowl LI)
• Super Bowl wins – 4 
• Super Bowl MVP Awards – 3
• NFL MVP Awards – 2 (2007, 2010)
• 5,000-yard passing seasons: 1
• 4,000-yard passing seasons: 8
• 3,000-yard passing seasons: 14
• Career passing touchdowns – regular season: 456
• Career games played – regular season: 237
• Career completions – regular season: 5,244

There is so much more to Tom Brady than stats and numbers. He has presented himself with class and dignity throughout a very long career; he hasn’t said one word about retirement. Brady’s legacy is already cemented in history, and there is so much more to be added to it.

By the time the 2017 NFL regular season begins, Tom Brady will be 40 years old, and he is showing no signs that his career is coming to an end. With a solid legacy already in place after 17 seasons, it’ll be exciting to see what more Tom Brady can possibly do if he does nothing but continue to improve.

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Travel Ban Protests Continue After Trump Fires Acting Attorney General

CHICAGO (CBS) — President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday, after she ordered Justice Department lawyers not to defend his travel ban in court.

The president replaced Yates with Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who was sworn in Monday night, and immediately directed the Justice Department to defend Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees. Trump has said Boente will serve as acting attorney general until U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions is confirmed as the next U.S. Attorney General.

The order, signed Friday, imposed a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The order also bars any refugees from entering the country for 120 days.

Yates’ ouster comes as protests continue at airports across the country, voicing opposition to the travel ban.

Critics of the president’s executive order were expected to rally at O’Hare International Airport and other major airports across the country Tuesday morning, the fourth consecutive day of protests.

While Trump has said his order is about national security, others have questioned its legality.

Dozens of attorneys have been setting up shop at O’Hare since Saturday, offering free legal help to travelers affected by the president’s order. At least 18 people were detained on Saturday before they were released, after a federal judge in New York intervened, issuing a temporary order prohibiting the federal government from deporting people subject to the travel ban.

No travelers have been detained since then, although dozens have been questioned extensively as part of a “secondary inspection” process before they have been allowed to go on their way.

“We’re tracking two Jordanian nationals who were coming on tourist visas. One appears to have been sent back,” attorney Heather Donnell said.

Meantime, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats have announced plans to introduce legislation that would overturn Trump’s travel ban.

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