* Greg Hinz…

Chicago now is averaging nearly one mass shooting a week, and has been since at least 2020.

That’s the bottom line of some disturbing — and revealing — new figures from the University of Chicago Crime Lab that underline just how much mass violence has worked its way into the city’s collective consciousness not as an aberration but the norm. […]

For one, shootings in poor Black neighborhoods still haven’t “garnered the outpouring of support or mobilized the kind of action” as shootings in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods, [U of C Crime Lab Executive Director Roseanna Ander] said in an email to Crain’s. “The fact that gun violence — including mass shootings — has been in some sense ‘normalized’ when it happens in Chicago should force us all to look in the mirror and question our priorities.” […]

Ander said the answer includes better deployment of police, so that officers are located where they’re really needed; better data for police dispatchers to make decisions; and an increase in proactive social service, so that young people are reached before and not after they get in trouble.

* Center Square…

Some Illinois concert venues will soon be required to have overdose-reversing drugs on hand. […]

State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, advanced a measure aimed to prevent overdose deaths at concert venues. The legislation requires for-profit music venues that have an occupancy of 1,000 or more to have opioid-overdose antidotes on hand and trained staff available to administer the drugs. […]

Fentanyl now accounts for nearly 70% of all opioid-related deaths in the U.S., with a growing number of overdoses occurring at events such as music festivals. Music festivals like Lollapalooza have become hotspots for party drugs like ecstasy and cocaine.

* Crain’s…

Argonne National Laboratory has finished building a $500 million supercomputer that’s shaping up to be the fastest in the world.

The new computer, called Aurora, is among the first examples of a new class of blindingly fast machines to reach “exascale,” or the ability to do a quintillion — or 1 billion-billion — calculations per second.

To put that in perspective, Aurora can do in one second what it would take the Earth’s population 40 years to accomplish if everyone was doing one calculation per second. It’s the sort of speed in handling staggering volumes of data that enables cellular-level simulations of parts of the human body or models of the universe, which weren’t possible before.

* New national poll…

In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll, one in four Americans say state efforts that have followed to impose strict limits on abortion access have made them more supportive of abortion rights. […]

The nationwide poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken by landline and cellphone June 5-9, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

By almost 2-1, 58%-30%, those surveyed opposed the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. […]

Americans overwhelmingly oppose the next goal of many anti-abortion activists, to enact a federal law banning abortion nationwide. By 80%-14%, those surveyed opposed that idea, including 65% of Republicans and 83% of independents.

* Keep in mind that this ILGOP plan would cost local governments hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues…

Friend,

With the COVID pandemic in the rear-view mirror, a tax exemption put in place for groceries is set to expire soon!

We in the Illinois Republican Party are a party that believes in fiscal responsibility and low taxation so that hard-working citizens can keep more of their earned money.

It’s bad enough that the Illinois Democrats implemented a variety of terrible laws during the pandemic, but ending this tax exemption is another blow to families across the state who are already feeling the weight of Democrat-made inflation and rising prices for goods.

We are committed to electing Republicans across the state at all levels who will put our state on a better path away from the fiscal disaster that the Democrats have created. And we’d love your support to make it happen!

Can you support our efforts today by signing our petition? >>
Alert Tax Hike Incoming
SIGN OUR PETITION TO SUPPORT LOW TAXES >>
SEND A GIFT TO THE ILGOP >>

* Give him credit, the new mayor seems to understand how to pass ordinances, and will even work with problematic alderpersons…

The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday allowing people who grow food on their property or in community gardens to sell their fruits and veggies.

It was a resurrection: The Urban Agriculture Business License Enhancement Ordinance, as it’s called, was introduced last year by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration. But Ald. Raymond Lopez had concerns that it didn’t address enough issues, including raising livestock on personal property. When he and Lightfoot’s team couldn’t reach an agreement (no surprise, given they butted heads for four years), Lopez moved to “defer and publish” the measure — which meant it would not get a vote.

Enter the Johnson administration, which approached Lopez to unlock the ordinance.

Lopez reiterated his concerns, and Johnson’s team created a working group to examine the livestock issue. “I was more than happy to usher in the ordinance that I stopped as a sign of good faith that we can in fact work together to resolve some of the outstanding issues from the past,” Lopez told Playbook.

In Wednesday’s pre-council meeting, Beth Beatty, who’s the interim head of Intergovernmental Affairs, said she’s never seen a measure brought back to life like that.

* Hacked again /s…

The Paul Vallas Twitter account is liking stuff again, this time a Newsmax clip pic.twitter.com/fzcvq1FSrr

— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) June 22, 2023

* Press release…

The Board of Directors of The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (The Partnership) today announced the appointment of George Wright as chief executive officer. Wright comes to the role after a distinguished career in banking and community investment and after serving as the co-chair of The Partnership’s Board of Directors since 2015. In April, he stepped down from The Partnership Board and retired as director of community relations for Citibank’s Global Consumer Group. As director of community relations, Wright led all aspects of Citi’s community development portfolio in Illinois and across the Central Region. The Partnership is a non-profit entity that oversees the largest workforce system in the country in Chicago and Cook County.

* Isabel’s roundup…

* WTTW | Chicago to Pay $8.8M to Settle 3 Police Misconduct Cases: The Chicago City Council voted unanimously to pay $7.25 million to Arthur Brown, who spent almost three decades in prison after being convicted of arson and a double murder before being exonerated. He was released in 2017 after a judge overturned his conviction, prompting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to drop the charges against him.

* Block Club | Police Oversight Agency Clears 2 Cops In 2019 Arrest Over Ex-Gardiner Staffer’s Lost Phone: The Civilian Office of Police Accountability found there was probable cause to arrest Benjamin George after he was accused of stealing a cell phone belonging to Charles Sikanich, the former 45th Ward superintendent, according to the final summary report looking into responding officers’ conduct in the incident.

* Crain’s | Opinion: 8 takeaways from the ‘ComEd Four’ convictions: Two Commonwealth Edison executives and contract lobbyists are facing substantial jail time after recent federal convictions of engaging in a wide-ranging corruption scheme involving their Springfield lobbying. The corporate entity previously had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, which included a $200,000 fine.

* SJ-R | ‘We in Illinois stay strong in our support’ Springfield leader honored in pride month ceremony: “As we have seen recently in other states, the rights of our LGBTQ friends can never be taken for granted. We in Illinois stay strong in our support – we passed marriage equality before it was federal law,” Mendoza said. “We have enshrined protections for our transgender residents, but we must stay vigilant, and we must continue to set the standard for other states to follow. We must continue to show what is possible when you truly believe in freedom, liberty and justice for all.”

* Sun-Times | Sox park hit-and-run victims got help from stranger with emergency medical training: But he has a good idea what placed him at Guaranteed Rate Field when a speeding car barreled into a crowd of people Tuesday night. “It was God’s calling,” Eastling said Wednesday. “When you see someone in need, you help them. You don’t turn your back on them.”

* STL Post-Dispatch | Southern Illinois University investigating cyberattack tied to Russian hackers: The university said it was looking into “recent suspicious network activity” related to MOVEit, an online file transfer system that was recently attacked by a Russian hacking group.

* Sun-Times | NASCAR course takes shape at Grant Park: ‘We’ve never built anything this large this fast’: With less than two weeks to go until the green flag drops, NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race course is taking shape around Grant Park. NASCAR has begun work on all but two of its 13 grandstands and suites, according to Chicago Street Race President Julie Giese.

* Crain’s | Metra asks for public feedback on proposed fare changes for 2024: Among the biggest changes Metra is proposing are: slashing the number of fare zones from 10 down to four, restructuring fare rates based on the new zones and replacing the 10-ride pass with a pair of five-ride passes.

* LA Times | Column: The truth about our homelessness crisis: As Californians age, they are priced out: Kushel and her team found that nearly half of single adults living on our streets are over the age of 50. And 7% of all homeless adults, single or in families, are over 65.

* NYT | Report Cites More Than 350 Anti-L.G.B.T.Q. Incidents Over 11 Months: There were more than 350 incidents of anti-L.G.B.T.Q. harassment, vandalism or assault in the United States from June 2022 through April 2023, according to a new report, reflecting a climate in which bias against gay and especially transgender people has become widespread.