Caitlin Clark, who dominated the NCAA throughout the last year as she broke all-time shooting records held for decades before being selected as the overall first pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, has been told her fame is to do with her “race and sexuality” by an ex-ESPN host.

Jemele Hill, who worked for the network between 2006-2018, suggested that the Indiana Fever star hasn’t totally earned her own status as the face of the WNBA, despite her dominant college run resulting in sold-out arenas as people clamoured to watch her star for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Hill believes that it’s to do with the 22-year-old being both white and straight as the WNBA possesses a reported 70% total of black players and around 33% LBGTQ+ members, yet it’s Clark who has become synonymous with the league.

“We would all be very naive if we didn’t say race and her sexuality played a role in her popularity,” Jemele Hill told the LA Times. “While so many people are happy for Caitlin‘s success – including the players; this has had such an enormous impact on the game.

“There is a part of it that is a little problematic because of what it says about the worth and the marketability of the players who are already there.”

Clark‘s success manifesting in the form of a contract with Nike worth an astonishing $28m as she helps breathe life into women’s basketball is also problematic, believing it is overlooking black women.

“There’s plenty of room to highlight and celebrate Caitlin Clark‘s popularity,” Hill added. “While also discussing ways in which to not erase black women from a league that they have built and continue to build.”

Clark’s in the middle of a racism storm

Hill is far from the first person to talk about how Clark is a model marketing tool for the WNBA to appeal to a wide audience from the American and western world population, as she builds upon comments made by A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces.

Wilson could feel aggrieved by the popularity around Clark as the 27-year-old, who was selected as the first pick of 2018, has managed to become a two-time champion with the Aces, a Finals MVP and two-time WNBA MVP but she doesn’t enjoy the same amount of fame as Clark does.

“I think it’s a huge thing. I think a lot of people may say it’s not about black and white, but to me, it is,” Wilson said to media. “It really is because you can be top-notch at what you are as a black woman, but yet maybe that’s something that people don’t want to see.

“They don’t see it as marketable, so it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what we all do as black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug. That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race because it is.”

TUESDAY NEWS FLASH – A heightened risk for damaging storms exists tonight. Before that, today will be downright hot with highs around 90 degrees under partly to mostly sunny skies.

It will be breezy and there’s a small chance of showers this morning, but most of the day will be dry. 

Dangerous storms will erupt in Iowa and Missouri this afternoon and advance toward Chicagoland tonight. I expect a tornado watch to be issued for our viewing area between 5 and 7 p.m. lasting until 1 a.m. All thunderstorm hazards are possible with damaging straight-line winds a primary concern. Damaging gusts could be significant and widespread. Storms will end around midnight with gusty winds to around 40 mph in the wake of that activity. 

Calls for increased police presence after violent weekend in Chicago: ‘We have to do something’

There are increasing calls to ramp up the city’s police presence as Memorial Day approaches, especially after a violent weekend.

Police reported 45 people were shot this weekend, one of them fatally.

Local activists gathered Monday, urging more police patrols in several neighborhoods, expressing concern that gun violence across Chicago is worsening. 

Dog that cried ‘endlessly’ at shelter gets good news

A dog that “cried endlessly” at a shelter in Indiana got good news. 

Major, a 4-year-old terrier pitbull mix from Indiana, is finally going home. 

He had been at the Humane Society for Hamilton County for 258 days when the shelter shared that he was in need of a family.

Major was brought in as a stray but had a microchip. Shelter employees were able to contact his family who said they would come pick him up promptly but ended up being no-shows.

3 workers injured in Machesney Park construction collapse

 Three workers were injured on Monday after a building under construction collapsed in Machesney Park, Illinois.

The incident occurred as severe weather swept through the Chicago area, although it remains unclear what role, if any, the weather played in the collapse.

“The whole structure collapsed in there that was under construction. All the I-beams, all the steel came down on top of the high lifts,” a fire official said.

The incident occurred early this afternoon at a local manufacturing facility in the 9900 block of North Alpine Road. A building expansion that was under construction is what actually collapsed, officials said.

Waukegan alderman’s Facebook post about severed arm sparks outrage at City Council meeting

A controversial Facebook post by 6th Ward Alderman Keith Turner was a focal point of discussion at Waukegan’s regular city council meeting Monday night, which saw a packed house.

Mayor Ann Taylor’s office confirmed that Turner posted a picture of a severed arm found along the shores of Lake Michigan in Waukegan just days ago. This incident coincides with ongoing investigations into the remains of Sade Robinson, 19, who was allegedly murdered and dismembered last month. Maxwell Anderson, 33, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson in connection with her death.

Although Turner’s post did not mention Robinson by name, her family has reportedly requested that the alderman be reprimanded. At least five of Turner’s colleagues deemed the Facebook post inappropriate and insensitive.

In a statement, Mayor Taylor expressed her disapproval, saying, “I find the posting of an image of this type to be morally disgusting, socially irresponsible, and extremely cruel to the victim’s family.”

Live News on FOX 32

Chicago Weather Forecast

What we’re watching today

• Chicago’s Public Safety community is coming together to promote safety on and off the water this summer ahead of beaches opening this Friday. There will be a water rescue demonstration at 10:15 a.m.
• Alderman David Moore and Former CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson will be at City Hall at 11 a.m. to advocate for ShotSpotter ahead of Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
• A semi-truck overturned on Interstate 290 just west of Broadview, leaving two people injured Monday night. 
• A man was critically wounded after being shot during a robbery at a gas station this morning in the Washington Park neighborhood.
• A federal magistrate judge on Monday ordered a man accused of opening fire on a busy street outside Wrigley Field earlier this month to remain in custody without bail.

Elvis Presley’s granddaughter fights Graceland foreclosure sale, alleges fraud

Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, is reportedly suing to stop a foreclosure auction of the iconic Graceland estate, alleging fraud and claiming that the company behind the sale isn’t even real.

Keough, the 34-year-old daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley and current owner of Graceland, filed a lawsuit to stop the sale, according to FOX 13 in Memphis, citing court documents. 

Elvis bought Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1957, and it remained his home base throughout the height of his success and ultimately became his final resting place. The estate has since welcomed millions of paid visitors over the past four decades.

Hoosiers are paying among the highest prices in the U.S. for hospital care. That’s according to a new survey that has just been released.

A RAND survey found that Hoosiers are paying the 8th highest prices on average for healthcare at hospitals, and those numbers include people with employer provided health insurance. The study blames hospital mergers and facility costs for the price increases, along with employers paying more for insurance premiums.

RAND Health Care Cost Analyst Brian Briscombe said these mergers and other factors in the environment of healthcare have put Hoosiers in a tough spot.

“If you don’t know the price of things, you’re kind powerless to shop around,” Briscombe said to WISH-TV. “You don’t really know how to shop around.”

Briscombe said rising hospital prices have also played a role in overall wages not increasing in Indiana like they should be.

“We get compensated partially by our salary and partially by our benefits,” Briscombe said. “If our benefits cost more and more, that just leaves less money left to pay your salary.”

The Indiana Hospital Association is disputing the numbers released by RAND, which is a non-partisan think tank. The IHA saying in a statement that the report did not consider how hospitals in Indiana subsidize insurance companies’ low payments to doctors.

“RAND reports also do not take into account Indiana’s low Medicaid rates, which haven’t been raised in over 30 years and rank far below the national average at 12th lowest in the nation,” the statement said.

Briscombe said there is no “national solution” to the problem with high prices for healthcare at hospitals and that it has to be dealt with market by market.