* WTTW…

Officials announced Tuesday they will move 1,200 migrants out of three shelters across Chicago as the crisis that has sent nearly 48,000 men, women and children to the city from the southern border enters a new phase.

Shelters in Little Village and in the West Loop will close Oct. 1 and a shelter in Hyde Park will close Oct. 24. All of the residents will be offered space in one of the 14 shelters the city will continue to operate, officials said.

In all, the closures of the shelters at 2241 S. Halsted Ave., 344 N. Ogden Ave. and 4900 S. Lake Shore Drive will reduce the city’s migrant shelter capacity by more than 3,000 beds.

After the three shelters close, the city will have approximately 2,000 additional beds, officials said. That will ensure that the city could handle an unanticipated surge in the final eight weeks before the presidential election, officials said.

* WCIA…

The Springfield government has stopped its effort to criminalize homelessness.

An ordinance filed by Springfield mayor Misty Buscher and Alderwoman Lakeisha Purchase to set up fines for “public camping” was filed for emergency passage last week. After hours of public comment, the council decided to remove the emergency passage language and scheduled to discuss it further at the committee.

Now, they do not want the ordinance considered at Tuesday evening’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

“We understand and respect the concerns raised by local advocacy groups, stakeholders, and members of our community regarding Ordinance 2024-376,” they said in a joint statement Tuesday. “In light of these concerns, we, as sponsors of the ordinance, have decided to request that the ordinance be withdrawn from committee consideration.”

*** Statewide ***

* Fox 2 Now | Over 180 electric vehicle charging ports to be built along Illinois interstates: Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation announced Monday that the state will be investing $25.3 million in vehicle charging stations. According to a news release, the grants will be going toward the construction of 182 new charging stations along Illinois interstates. Madison County will receive $649,240 in grants to install charging ports.

* The Atlantic | Why Police Officers Rarely Change Jobs: Why do police officers like Grayson keep getting hired? Part of the answer comes from today’s guest, UChicago law professor John Rappaport, whose research on “wandering officers” revealed the extent to which previously fired officers find jobs in new departments and the structural incentives of small departments to keep hiring them.

* Farm Week Now | Monarch sightings vary across Illinois: With monarch butterfly populations reported at historically low ranges last winter, experts and gardeners watched closely to see what that would mean to this summer’s populations in Illinois. Reports have been mixed with some people noting an absence of the colorful butterflies. “In Clark County, we’re pretty consistent with butterfly numbers this year,” said Don Guinnip, who has been active with sustainability and environmental issues with various commodity groups and farm organizations for years.

*** Chicago ***

* Sun-Times | Chicago Parking Meters LLC accused of violating city’s minority participation requirements: The 75-year lease requires CPM to utilize certified minority- and women-owned businesses for “at least 25% of annual expenses tied to operating the parking meter system, excluding construction contracts.” But that’s not what has happened. From 2011 to 2018, CPM “claimed MBE credit for a vendor that was not MBE-certified,” Witzburg said.

* Sun-Times | Jury awards $50 million to Chicago man who spent 10 years in prison after wrongful conviction: Brown was convicted at age 18, and spent around 10 years in prison before being exonerated in 2018. Information used to convict Brown was “obtained in clear violation of law,” the suit stated, continuing a pattern of Chicago police detectives using coercive interrogation tactics and targeting young Black men. The lawsuit argued that the defendants violated Brown’s fifth and 14th amendment rights by conducting an unconstitutional interrogation and infringing on Brown’s right to due process.

* Block Club | CTA Worker Who Witnessed Red Line Shooting Says Agency Leaders ‘Don’t Care About Our Safety’: “A manager insulted me right after, asking if it was because I owed somebody some money,” said Griffin, who was uninjured and now taking leave. Griffin said he had voiced concerns “ignored by management” that it was unsafe for switch workers to clock in and out at odd hours at the station instead of their work location a block away, which is inaccessible to the public.

* Sun-Times | Chicago Public Schools fires sports director David Rosengard: Rosengard’s time in charge was mired by several basketball scandals. In March, five Kenwood players, head coach Mike Irvin and two assistant coaches were ruled ineligible for violating Illinois High School Association rules. Chicago Public Schools’ Office of the Inspector General presented evidence and documents to the IHSA on Jan. 25 that revealed potential residency rules violations for multiple Kenwood basketball players. The IHSA investigated further.

* Tribune | Art Institute announces $75 million gift to create new gallery building on Michigan Avenue campus: The largest single naming gift in the Art Institute’s history will create the Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building, which will house the museum’s collection of late 19th century modern and contemporary art, according to a news release. While the design and location have yet to be finalized, the building will offer “spectacular views of the park, the city and the lake,” and begin the process of “re-envisioning” the campus layout as part of a five-year old conceptual plan, according to the news release.

* Crain’s | JPMorgan Chase loans $10 million to jump-start South, West Side affordable housing projects: The loan is part of a broader commitment the financial giant made beginning in 2017 to provide $200 million in philanthropic capital and low-cost loans to address decades of disinvestment in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. The investment is modeled on an effort Chase pioneered in Detroit to help restore that city. CCLF, a nonprofit providing financial and technical assistance for community development, can leverage the capital from the loan multiple times over, creating as much as $40 million in financing for community projects, said Kevin Goldsmith, managing director of community development tax credits and intermediaries lending at JPMorgan Chase.

* WGN | Lincoln Square martial arts studio hit by vandals twice in 2 months; CAIR calls on CPD to investigate as hate crime: The studio’s owner, Eddie Redzovic, is a well-known YouTuber on The Deen Show where he frequently talks about his Muslim faith. […] The Center for American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is calling on the Chicago Police Department to investigate this latest incident, and another nearby, as possible hate crimes. “It’s really concerning to us because we just got a case from the Muslim Community Center, about 10 minute walk from here, that something very similar happened to them a few days ago. If you look at the security footage, it appears to be the same car. Kind of the same manner in which the attack was taken out. So we’re very suspicious of this that this is the same person,” said Maggie Slavin of CAIR Chicago.

* Crain’s | Southwest Airlines cuts more flights at O’Hare: The low-cost carrier is flying about 14 flights on peak days at O’Hare, down from 18 in June, according to data from aviation-research firm Cirium. The cutback comes after a reduction in summer flying, which the carrier blamed in part on delays in getting new aircraft from Boeing. The new schedule is less than half the capacity Southwest was offering a year ago. The airline says the changes are in response to customer demand but “we remain committed to serving our Chicago-area customers from the airport they prefer.”

* Crain’s | Law firm planting new flag on Wacker Drive, cutting office footprint: The deal adds to the space-shedding movement that has battered downtown office landlords since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and fueled a historic wave of distressed properties in the heart of the city. It also shows how the newest and most-updated office buildings continue to outperform older ones as companies hunt for workspace that will help get employees to work in-person rather than remotely on a more regular basis.

* Block Club | Could Chicago’s Next Weird Tourist Attraction Be This Purse Full Of Lucky Charms?: Chicagoans are already going out of their way to visit the Lucky Charms purse, making sure the unofficial art installation remains undisturbed. […] A Block Club reporter checked out the Lucky Charms purse Monday afternoon and confirmed it was still hanging from the pole, undisturbed.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Sun-Times | S&C Electric opens massive Palatine manufacturing facility amid growing electric grid demand: Longtime Chicago company S&C Electric Co. held a ribbon cutting Tuesday to officially unveil its massive facility in Palatine that will meet the growing demand for its products and help increase its innovation efforts. The 275,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 200 Sellstrom Drive opened earlier this year, and the company has steadily moved some of its production from Rogers Park, where it’s headquartered, over to the facility.

* Sun-Times | Ford Heights mayor’s corruption case is nearing a conclusion — six years after he was charged: Six years after Ford Heights Mayor Charles Griffin was charged with embezzling nearly $150,000 from the tiny cash-strapped south suburb, his case could soon come to a conclusion. A trial before Cook County Judge James Obbish quietly got started in recent months and, after a break in June, is slated to resume next Monday.

*** Downstate ***

* SJ-R | ‘Our blood bleeds the same.’ Favoritism of former police sergeant cited at crash: Jason Rule said Monday he started following Farley and Hopkins around Taylor Avenue at Stevenson Drive going towards the lake. Rule witnessed the accident, including Egan swerving from the driving lane across the turn lane into the Anchor Boat Club. […] “It was just atrocious to see everything that happened and the way they treated that guy. He’s laughing and smiling and giving high fives and dabs, laughing about the whole thing. It was ridiculous.

* WCBU | Peoria, East Peoria mayors tight-lipped on potential casino move: Speaking at the unveiling of a new downtown mural Tuesday, Peoria Mayor Rita Ali declined to speak at length about the city attempting to persuade Boyd to relocate the casino. “There’s an agreement that was signed many years ago that if land-based casinos were to come to this area, that they would be in Peoria. That’s basically all I have to say about that,” Ali said.

* WCIA | 50-pound pumpkin stolen from FFA plot of Rantoul school: Todd Wilson, the principal of Rantoul Township High School, posted on his Facebook page that a 50-pound pumpkin was stolen from the plot. Along with the theft of the pumpkin, Wilson said the vines of the plot were trampled, which he sarcastically called “a nice touch,” and “might make it easier for us to harvest the other pumpkins and gourds.”

*** National ***

* IGN | A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed.: According to the source, Craven allegedly received gifts and consistent praise and attention every time he would post about Bank’s ailments or recoveries. In order to prevent any legal ramifications, particularly if Craven was misleading clients, the source hired a private investigator, a retired Chicago police officer, who previously worked with an associate of the source. The goal of the investigation was to find concrete proof of Banks’ existence. Several days later, the investigator returned with no information. No immigration record, address, employment record, marriage license, or birth certificate was found. Banks, according to the investigator, was not a real person. IGN received the receipt of the investigation and can confirm the source was billed for these services.

* FOX Chicago | Recall of eggs, apple juice and deli meat: Recent list over various health concerns: The Boar’s Head recall involving more than 7 million pounds of deli meat is the most serious among the recent grocery recalls. The meats were recalled over serious listeria concerns. At least nine people have died and another 57 have been hospitalized, according to U.S. officials, marking the largest listeria outbreak since the 2011 outbreak linked to cantaloupe.

* NYT | Doctors Give Black Women Unneeded C-Sections to Fill Operating Rooms, Study Suggests: That’s the conclusion of a new report of nearly one million births in 68 hospitals in New Jersey, one of the largest studies to tackle the subject. Even if a Black mother and a white mother with similar medical histories saw the same doctor at the same hospital, the Black mother was about 20 percent more likely to have her baby via C-section, the study found.

BREAKING: The Missouri Supreme Court has reversed the lower court’s decision and ruled the abortion-rights amendment will remain on the Nov. 5 ballot. #moleg pic.twitter.com/lUpe9XnjOo

— Anna Spoerre (@annaspoerre) September 10, 2024