Daywatch: Lightfoot swept into office as an avowed reformer. 3 years later, critics see ‘missed opportunities.’
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Good morning, Chicago.
As a candidate for mayor, Lori Lightfoot promised to transform Chicago’s often corrupt political culture, in part by taking away the near-total power aldermen have over matters in their own wards and by leading a transparent government.
Three years later, activists and aldermen say the city’s political culture largely remains intact. And as she gears up for an expected reelection bid next year, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Alice Yin explain why her record on cleaning up City Hall is likely to be a target of those who want to succeed her.
In pandemic news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended kids ages 5 to 11 get a booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
And the stock market’s skid this year has pulled the S&P 500 close to what’s known as a bear market. Here’s what that means.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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‘All of a sudden, shots went off’: 2 dead, 8 wounded in shooting outside McDonald’s, CTA station on Near North Side, police and witnesses say
A mass shooting that started with a brawl among teens has left two dead and eight wounded late Thursday, blocks from the Magnificent Mile, according to Chicago police, who have one person in custody. Another person had suffered burns, possibly from being injured on the nearby CTA Red Line subway, according to a witness and a Chicago Fire Dept. spokesman.
The shooting happened about 10:40 p.m. in the 800 block of North State Street outside the Chicago Avenue subway station and a McDonald’s at 10 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago police said in a media notification. Amid the chaos of the shooting’s aftermath, a woman yelled at officer standing near the station entrance, “What hospital? My brother got shot!”
With her son’s death in the heart of Chicago still roiling the city, Seandell Holliday’s mother said she didn’t give the 16-year-old permission to go downtown before he was fatally shot near The Bean on Saturday night: “It felt like my soul left.”
A fake Coach purse sale, a customer’s viral TikTok video, and the backlash against a Humboldt Park vintage store
Candace Behrens was out shopping with her mom on Mother’s Day, doing what she loves to do — support local, small businesses — when a black Coach bag in a women’s vintage store in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood caught her eye.
Biden’s plan for free community college has stalled, but at some Chicago-area schools, it’s already happening
When Diana Anisova was a high school freshman in the northwest suburbs, she heard about a program that would let her attend Harper College tuition-free. Most who signed up as high schoolers didn’t follow through, but Anisova, now 20, stuck to her path, and later this month she’ll graduate from Harper without a penny of student loan debt.
That’s the sort of outcome President Joe Biden envisioned last year when he issued a “guarantee” of free community college, painting it as a way to solidify the middle class and enhance American competitiveness. The guarantee dissolved in Washington’s budget battles, but increasingly, schools like Harper College are taking that task upon themselves.
Fergie Jenkins’ statue will be unveiled today at Wrigley Field. His former teammates reflect on the Cubs Hall of Famer’s career.
Fergie Jenkins already has his 10-minute speech prepared well ahead of his monumental recognition. Jenkins joked he will try not to bore anyone but hopes to enlighten people about his baseball journey and thank those who helped him along the way. When Jenkins’ statue is unveiled this morning, it will join those of former teammates Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Billy Williams in the newly established monument row in Gallagher Way outside Wrigley Field.
“It’s an honor in itself because of the fact that a lot of generations have never seen me play, especially youngsters,” Jenkins told the Tribune. “It’s going to impact a lot of different people to stand by my statue and read some of the stats I’ve put together as an athlete: winning games, complete ballgames, winning the Cy Young, that type of thing.
WGN Radio celebrates its 100th anniversary as the ‘Voice of Chicago,’ a legacy AM station still making waves — despite losing the Cubs
When Chicago radio enthusiasts Thorne Donnelley and Elliott Jenkins fired up a newfangled transmitter from the Wrigley Building on May 19, 1922, they launched one of the first experimental stations in the U.S., piercing the airwaves with a mélange of talk, weather reports and concerts as the precursor to WGN Radio.
On Thursday, WGN-AM 720 celebrated its 100th anniversary, still going strong as the “Voice of Chicago” after a century of broadcasting that spans the dawn of radio to the digital age, using a format that has essentially remained unchanged.
