Chicago Bears guard Nate Davis paid $2.3 million in May for a five-bedroom, 5,537-square-foot house in Highland Park.

A Virginia native who previously had played for the Tennessee Titans, Davis signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Bears in March. He battled injuries in his first year with the team, including missing four games later in the season with a high ankle sprain.

Built in 2003 and designed by Evanston architect Michael Hershenson, Davis’ new house has five bathrooms, three fireplaces, a kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a family room with built-ins and a wall of windows and a wood-paneled study on the first floor. Other features include a four-season sunroom that offers ravine views and a primary suite with a second office, a private screened porch, dual custom walk-in closets and heated floors.

Downstairs on the lower level, the house has a game room, a kitchenette and a fitness room.

The house sits on a 1.28-acre property and is accessed via a wooded private drive.

The agent who represented Davis, Paul Gorney of eXp Realty, could not be reached for comment.

The house had a $52,785 property tax bill in the 2022 tax year.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance writer.

Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.

()

The Chicago Cubs needed to find reinforcements for the bullpen.

Acquiring a reliever with a consistent track record was particularly important — and something they finally addressed Saturday.

The Cubs and veteran reliever Héctor Neris have agreed to a one-year, $9 million deal that includes a $9 million team option for 2025, a source told the Tribune. Neris’ club option converts to a player option if the right-hander appears in 60 games, a mark he has hit each of the last three years and six of eight seasons excluding the shortened 2020 season. His contract ultimately can max out at $23.25 million with incentives.

Bringing in Neris addresses key needs in the bullpen. He brings durability, pitching in at least 70 games five times, and gives the Cubs a proven, back-end-of-the-pen reliever who has experience pitching in big games. The Cubs bullpen struggled down the stretch en route to missing the 2023 postseason as an inexperienced group wore down and battled injuries in September.

Neris, 34, owns a career 3.24 ERA over 546 big-league appearances coming off two seasons in Houston, including a World Series title in 2022. He also spent eight years with the Philadelphia Phillies. Primarily used in the seventh and eighth innings with the Astros, Neris also has experience closing, earning five saves in Houston and 84 with the Phillies.

Neris gives the Cubs another splitter in the bullpen to accompany right-hander Mark Leiter Jr., whose pitch has been a shutdown weapon versus lefties. Neris utilizes his splitter against righties and lefties, a pitch that generated a 42.2 Whiff% and .237 slugging percentage in 2023.

While he typically relies on a four-seam fastball and splitter combination opposing left-handed hitters, Neris also mixes a sinker and slider when facing right-handed batters. His average fastball velocity dropped by 1.3 mph from 2022 to 2023, but this deal indicates the Cubs are not significantly concerned with that.

The Cubs’ work on building a more proven bullpen should not be complete with the Neris acquisition. They still need more depth and ideally another postseason-tested reliever.

And with Cody Bellinger among the notable position players still available in free agency, the Cubs are capable of making significant roster improvements in the coming weeks.

()

Eager to see contract negotiations with a single citywide trash hauler move forward, the St. Paul City Council approved the purchase of five municipal garbage trucks on Wednesday, a $2.1 million investment in a retooled approach toward garbage collection.

The goal is to have city crews service 10% of residential trash hauling — about one long route per day — and free up a single private hauler to do the rest. Contract negotiations are underway this month with FCC Environmental Services, which is based in Texas and the United Kingdom.

The company services some 5,000 cities, including all of Spain, and operates across the United States, Europe and Africa. A new citywide trash hauling contract could be underway by April 1, 2025, replacing the city’s existing agreement with a consortium of five private haulers — Aspen Waste Systems, Gene’s Disposal Service, Highland Sanitation, Republic Services, and Waste Management.

“The lead time on ordering garbage trucks is significant,” said St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw, addressing the city council.

City officials have long received complaints about missed trash and recycling pick-ups on certain difficult-to-service routes, especially on the city’s East Side. Haulers, in turn, have said many of the city’s oldest alleys are too narrow to safely navigate in snowy weather.

Complicating matters, the city’s alley plowing system relies on everyday residents — volunteer “alley captains” — to coordinate snow removal for their block and contract a private plow driver. When and where it works, that works great, at less cost than the city might charge taxpayers for the same service. On blocks with less social cohesion, snow removal is more touch-and-go, if not nonexistent.

The hope is that by moving 10% of city trash routes in house, municipal crews will improve service on those particular alleys, while keeping rates competitive for the rest of the city.

“We don’t have the specific routes identified yet,” said Kershaw, though complaints from previous offers some clues as to where to start crafting a system.

Related Articles

St. Paul agrees to $210k settlement in lawsuit of woman who witnessed police shooting

On St. Paul’s November ballot: Child care subsidies funded by property taxes

Letters: To deter carjackers and assault? Issue personal bodycams at a low price

St. Paul enters into citywide trash hauling negotiations. Public Works to service difficult routes.

St. Paul City Council walks out as Nelsie Yang attempts to introduce Gaza cease-fire resolution

Rudy Gobert can see it happening in front of his own eyes as he stands in the dunker spot by the rim on offense.

The spacing tightens. The ball sticks. The players stand.

The Timberwolves’ offense screeches to a halt.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) works toward the basket as Los Angeles Clippers center Daniel Theis (10) defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, March 3, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

There have been stints of good offense throughout the season. But they’ve been outnumbered by the bad. It hasn’t mattered much for the first-place Timberwolves because the defense has just been that good; Minnesota’s defensive efficiency (108 points per 100 possessions) is 2.2 points better than the next-best defense.

But it’s concerning that the offense appears to potentially be getting worse in the final quarter of the regular season. And it’s starting to cost the Timberwolves games. In their recent seven-game homestand, they dropped all three games they played against quality foes. Specifically in the losses to Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers — a game in which Minnesota surrendered just 89 points and still lost — the offense was almost solely to blame.

Minnesota ranks 22nd in the NBA in offensive rating since returning from the all-star break.

“A lot of it comes down to both Anthony (Edwards) and KAT, guys who want the ball early. They are trying to play into the teeth of the defense too much,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We gotta get back to trusting our early structures, things that we’ve been doing well at times. Just playing out of that a lot more.”

From there, it does just boil down to making strong basketball plays — screening, cutting, spacing. Towns and Edwards have to be just as willing to do those things as their teammates.

“They’ve got to be able to put the work in without the ball. It’s a responsibility for everybody, whether it’s Rudy rolling. It can’t be just Jaden and Nickeil cutting. It has to be everybody,” Finch said. “When the defense dicates, you cut. You roll the switch, and you respace for the guy coming into your area. We get caught watching the ball a lot. When you watch the ball, we don’t move.”

It’s starting to disrupt even the offense of Towns and Edwards. Edwards is shooting 46 percent from the field and 32 percent from 3-point range since the all-star break. Towns — who is listed as “out” for Thursday’s game in Indiana with left knee soreness — is at 41 percent from the floor and 33 percent from deep. Those numbers are significantly below what both generally average.

“They’re just chasing the game too much,” Finch said.

Gobert said the lack of those extra things on offense can be a product of fatigue — but that can’t be the case. In fact, cutting and screening and spacing could be what gets Minnesota’s two best offensive players ignited.

A prime example of that has been the second unit, as Kyle Anderson, Monte Morris and Naz Reid have gotten going offensively of late, seemingly as the reserves have picked up their ball and body movement.

“I think it comes a lot from the energy that they put into it. Naz, Kyle, Nickeil (Alexander-Walker). You see how fast they move, how much they cut. They screen, they get off of each other really quickly and create space,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “I think we can, with that first unit, be a bit slower. We have guys who can post, guys who can move inside and out, so there’s a lot of different opportunities there. So it might make us a little bit slower as a group.

“But this group has to figure out how to get that from our starting unit to play with a little bit more force, more pace, to open things up quicker for Ant and everybody else on the team to make easy plays.”

The chase to consistently achieve that offensively continues. Minnesota looks to find its way as it embarks on a six-game road trip, which opens Thursday in Indiana. Finch was looking forward to Wednesday’s film session in hopes of “starting to build things back in a better way.”