Smollett Jailed / MLB Is Back / Bears Trade Mack / Bad Bunny

The Chicago saga of Jussie Smollett came to a dramatic finale.

Like a scene from the hit television show "Empire" that made him famous, Smollet declared his innocence, shouted "I am not suicidal" and raised his fist as sheriff's deputies from the courtroom to immediately serve a 150-day sentence in Cook County jail as punishment for being convicted of felonies for orchestrating a hate crime against himself and lying about it to police.

Judge Sentences Jussie Smollett To Cook County Jail Immediately

Lightly Dusted. High: 36 Low: 14.

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• First, some good news: The Major League Baseball lockout is over, clearing the way for a full 162-game season starting mid-April. The American League Central champion White Sox will immediately have a crack at beating the Cubs in a spring training matchup. (Patch)
• The Bears have struck a deal to trade their best player, Khalil Mack, to the Los Angeles Chargers. They'll get draft picks in return. (Patch)
• Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx says Jussie Smollett was a victim of "mob justice." The actor "was indicted, tried and convicted by a kangaroo prosecution in a matter of months. Meanwhile, the families of more than 50 Black women murdered in Chicago over the last 20 years await justice," she wrote in a scathing Sun-Times op-ed. (CBS2)
• Not everyone will need 60 college credits to apply for the police academy. Police officials announced the college requirement will be waved for officers from other departments and applicants with certain career experience, including social services, health care, education, trades and private security. (WGN9)

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Just The Links:

• Indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn't so bad, Ben Joravsky writes.
• The White Sox home opener is April 12 vs. Seattle.
• One of Jussie Smollett's bodyguards shoved a news photographer to the ground.
• Ah, those downtown Brown Line views.

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— Mark Konkol

About me: Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."