* ICYMI: Citing fear of job loss, union pressures Trib to drop AI policy. Crain’s…

- Chicago Tribune journalists hit back against their company’s proposed AI policy in a social media blitz.
- The Chicago Tribune Guild, the union representing its newsroom, said Alden Global “proposed contract language that would give it unrestricted power to outsource newsroom work, including to artificial intelligence tools.”
- The union has accused Alden Global of “slow-walking contract negotiations” and offering “non-starter proposals” that include the possibility of eliminating the company’s 401(k) match and refusing pay increases. The Guild won its union election in 2018 and has yet to reach a first contract.

At 9 am Governor Pritzker will give remarks at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting. Click here to watch.

* SJ-R | Illinois Democrats pumping ’seven figure investments’ into 2 key congressional races: Budzinski and Sorensen are seen as the most sensitive to a potential flip, especially Sorensen where the National Republican Congressional Committee is putting resources to his challenger Joe McGraw. Both, however, have still significant fundraising advantages over their opponents. […] In this election, Virden Republican Josh Loyd and Green Party candidate Chibu Asonye of Champaign are challenging Budzinski. Budzinski’s campaign, as of the latest campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission, holds more than $2 million in reserves compared to $2,883 for Loyd. There is no data available for Asonye and a challenge to her nomination papers filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections is still pending.

* Illinois Answers | Luxury Home or Vacant Lot? Cook County Assessor Misclassifies Hundreds of Properties, Missing $444M in One Year Alone: The Gilmores’ house isn’t being unfairly targeted. It’s being treated normally and reassessed every three years like hundreds of thousands of properties across Cook County. Rather, the inequality is due to the assessor’s office missing new construction and major improvements to homes and businesses all across Cook County. In one year alone, Kaegi’s office has missed hundreds of millions of dollars in market value, which is a foundational figure used in taxing properties in Cook County. The missteps came even though in hundreds of cases Kaegi’s office possessed the documents or data it needed indicating the homes and businesses had been renovated or that the vacant land had been developed, the Tribune and Illinois Answers found.

* CBS Chicago | In wake of Sonya Massey shooting, call issued for referendum on whether Illinois sheriff should resign: Sangamon County Board member Sam Cahnman (D-18th) said he will introduce a resolution to have a referendum added to the ballot in November—simply asking voters whether Sheriff Jack Campbell should resign. Campbell has defended his decision to hire Sean Grayson, the deputy who shot and killed Massey early on Saturday, July 6, at her house outside Springfield. He shot her when she checked on a pot of boiling water in her own kitchen while saying, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson was fired from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s office and has been charged with Massey’s murder. Meanwhile, his past has raised new questions over the decision to hire him in the first place.

* Tribune | Deaths from domestic gun violence rose in 2023 in Illinois, report says: Shootings related to domestic violence in Illinois were significantly more lethal in 2023 even as their overall number remained mostly stable from previous years, a new report from The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence found. The report projected that 130 people in Illinois would die due to domestic gun violence in 2024. The report, released weeks after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, documented 109 shootings related to domestic violence, which killed 93 people in Illinois throughout 2023.

* Tribune | Illinois trees and plants suffering widespread damage from renewed use of decades-old weedkillers on farms, studies show: At first glance it appears Hirsch’s property is an idyllic refuge on the edge of suburbia. But her training didn’t prepare her for an onslaught of weedkillers drifting from nearby farms and neighboring yards — a scourge spreading throughout Illinois as chemical companies revive volatile herbicides from generations past. Trees are slowly dying after being hit for years by weedkillers. Their once-robust canopy has thinned. Many of the leaves are cupped or deformed. So are the Hirsch family’s flowers and vegetables.

* Tribune | Controversial staffing firm to remain in Chicago migrant shelters: ‘Right now, Favorite is our solution’: The out-of-state emergency staffing firm was first tapped by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in fall 2022 to run Chicago’s nascent migrant shelter system as busloads of Venezuelans began arriving in the city from Texas. That contract has remained the city’s costliest by far of the ongoing migrant situation, with almost two-thirds of the $433.7 million in total expenditures spent on asylum-seekers so far going toward Favorite Staffing, per city records from July. The Johnson administration has touted rate negotiations that have driven down per-resident costs and have saved up to $3 million a week even as an earlier spike in the shelter population this winter contributed to a whopping $276.6 million bill from Favorite Staffing since the start of the migrant crisis.

* Block Club | Feds Pledge To Advance Nearly $400 Million More To Red Line Extension: Federal transit officials pledged $746 million next year to extend the Red Line south to 130th Street, up from $350 million. The total federal funding remains the same, but the move is expected to lower the city’s borrowing costs for the project.

* WTTW | Watchdog: Chicago’s Workers’ Comp System Has Been Reformed, 5 Years After Ed Burke Control: The first-of-its-kind audit by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg of the city’s workers compensation system found “major improvement” in the system that paid $73.5 million to resolve approximately 3,700 claims in 2022. “As the program is ushered into a new era and the city works to clear a cloud of historical corruption, we welcome the opportunity to shine some light into that room,” Witzburg said.

* Streetsblog | Amtrak’s convenient, timely Chicago-Twin Cities Borealis service saw strong ridership in its first month: According to preliminary figures released in early July, the Borealis saw around 18,500 passengers in June, or an average of 300 passengers a day in each direction. The May 2024 Amtrak monthly performance report showed that the service had 6,600 riders during its first 1.5 weeks of operation. The June 2024 report hadn’t been released by press time.

* Block Club | Former Edgewater Ald. Mary Ann Smith, City Hall Staple For 2 Decades, Dies at 77: As 48th Ward alderwoman from 1989 to 2011, Smith prioritized creating park spaces, improving local schools, introducing traffic calming measures and preserving the ward’s historic blocks, her family, friends and colleagues said. Smith “radiated authenticity, sweetness, compassion,” and was always followed around by her dogs and cats, Matthew Smith said.

* Tribune | A migrant family’s first year in Chicago: sadness, setbacks and ‘beautiful moments’: In 2023, the Tribune followed the Mendez family of five — Esperanza, her adult son, Fabian, his girlfriend, and Experanza’s two youngest children, Yuledy and Pedro — on a bus and train from El Paso, Texas, to Chicago last July. They had risked their lives to make it to the United States. A year later, they find themselves in deep isolation. […] “For months, my mind has been distracted. We’ve been in survival mode. It’s hard to keep up with everything,” said Esperanza in a recent interview. “All the while we’re worried about the people in our own country.”

* Daily Herald | Why Aqua Illinois is building a second water treatment plant in Hawthorn Woods : Water system operator Aqua Illinois, which has had past issues involving customer outages, is building a second water treatment plant in Hawthorn Woods to ensure reliability of the system. […] “In systems like Hawthorn Woods, a significant leak, coupled with normal usage can strain the water supply beyond its capacity,” said Areca Van Mill, regional communication specialist.

* Daily Herald | Despite lakefront focus, Bears president leaves the door open to Arlington Heights stadium ‘opportunity’: Warren’s latest comments — which came during the national TV broadcast of the Bears’ first preseason game Thursday night and in a local radio interview Tuesday — followed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s declaration Monday that it would be “near impossible” for legislation providing public money for a new lakefront stadium to pass the legislature this fall. “The focus is the Museum Campus downtown. I still think that’s the most beautiful piece of property in the country, where lake meets architecture downtown,” Warren said during the ABC/ESPN broadcast of the Bears’ Hall of Fame Game Thursday night. “We are the largest landowner in Arlington Heights. We own 326 acres. So that still is an opportunity cause we do own the land. But our focus right now is to do everything we can on the lakefront.”

* Daily Herald | ‘This is harming our students’: District looks to power down on cellphones in the classroom : The mantra at Evanston Township High School will be “bell to bell, no cell” as the school enacts a new policy requiring students to power down their phones and place them in a storage caddie at the beginning of each class. At Lake Zurich Community Unit District 95, middle and high school students also will turn in their phones at the beginning of each class. And Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59, junior high school students will be asked this year to store their cellphones in their lockers during the school day.

* BND | East St. Louis nonprofit starts construction on $2 million workforce training center: R3 Development, started in 2015, has employed about 150 young adults through its program, which aims to connect underserved students of the area to good-paying jobs and build up the local economy. “For us, it’s about addressing generational poverty with generational solutions,” said Dave Kuntz, R3’s executive director. “It affects the entire family unit, family line. And this really bolsters the region, the city through jobs and economic development.”

* SJ-R | Who’s performing, how much is admission?: Your 2024 Illinois State Fair questions answered: Free music performances are available each day during the Grand Central Stage Concert Series at the Reisch Pavillion. Among them, include country music singers Kylie Morgan and Drew Baldridge and tribute bands Taylor Made (Taylor Swift tribute) and Feeling This (Blink 182).

* Pantagraph | ‘Love is love’ at annual Pridefest in downtown Bloomington: This year, Main Street from Washington to Monroe streets was closed off, as was the square around the McLean County Museum of History, for a fest featuring live performances, music, family-friendly activities, speeches from local politicians and a “Pride Idol” that Lancaster had been cultivating all year.

* WCIA | Motorcyclists honor Sonya Massey with memorial ride: It was the 47th National Bikers Roundup — the largest camping motorcycle rally in the country. It’s held in a different place every year and is organized by African-American motorcycle clubs. “I’ve been to a few of these. I was here, I think about 11 years ago, if that long ago, when they had it here,” said Lee Bellmay of Indianapolis. “Except for this right here is a little different. You know, this it’s something else, you know; something added to it. Something we don’t want to have to be doing.”

* Sun-Times | White Sox’ losing streak hits 20 after sweep by Twins: With the defeat, their 23rd in their last 24 games, the Sox are a three-game road sweep against the Athletics away from tying the 1961 Phillies’ modern-era record of 23 consecutive losses. … With the result Sunday, they joined the 1906 Boston Americans, the 1916 and 1943 A’s and the expansion 1969 Expos with the third-longest streaks in history. The 1988 Orioles have the second-longest at 21 in a row, which is the American League record.

* Pantagraph | : She and her Olympic partner, Sarah Bacon, became silver medalists in synchronized Olympic diving — the first medals won by the U.S. in Paris — and NBC had set up a Zoom feed in Normal, in the home of Kassidy’s sister, Kylie. “And speaking of family,” said NBC studio host Maria Taylor, at that moment, as she interviewed Kassidy and diving partner, Sarah Bacon (yes, Cook ‘n Bacon) … “Kassidy, here is your sister, Kylie, and the rest of the gang there in Normal, Illinois!”

* Daily Herald | ‘I have truly lived the dream’: Dan Schatzeder went from major-league pitcher to suburban teacher and coach: Each Friday during his nearly 20 years as a physical education teacher and athletic coach at Aurora’s Waubonsie Valley High School, Dan Schatzeder would don an extraordinary piece of jewelry before heading to work. To passersby, the bauble on Schatzeder’s right ring finger might’ve looked like a class ring. But this was no mere memento of matriculation. No, this ring — with 15 diamonds set in a stylized, gold M against a blue background — was a far rarer keepsake, a prize awarded only to members of the 1987 World Series-winning Minnesota Twins baseball club.

* Block Club | Chicagoan Shamier Little Smashes World Record On Mixed Relay Team At Paris Olympics: Shamier Little, a 2013 graduate of Lindblom Math and Science Academy, sprinted for Team USA’s 4×400-meter mixed relay team that smashed the event’s world record Friday at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games track and field prelims. The team — featuring Vernon Norwood, Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown — finished the race in 3 minutes and 7.41 seconds, shaving more than a second off the previous record set at the World Championships in Budapest last year.

* Tribune | Itasca’s Zach Ziemek sets an American record with his 3rd Olympic decathlon: ‘That’s what drove me the entire time’: After running a painful, rain-soaked 1,500 meters to finish the Olympic decathlon, Zach Ziemek sat down on the track and let the exhaustion envelop him. The Itasca native had partially torn his left LCL the previous day during the long jump, instantly dashing his hopes for a medal and making the remaining eight events increasingly difficult. The final four laps around the track — never his favorite event — were a test of determination, done almost solely to secure his place in the U.S. record books.

* WBEZ | ‘Welcome home, Steve. You’re in football heaven.’: Misty talks to her husband, hand on his arm, and unveils the bust at his side. Dent, who played on the defensive line with McMichael and Hall of Famer Dan Hampton, says to his motionless teammate: ‘‘Welcome home, Steve. You’re in football heaven.’’ Misty has moved McMichael’s head so he can see the bust, and what he thinks of the epic, hair-flowing bronze sculpture is unknowable. But the likeness shows a young man in full glory, with a slight smile that can be read as great confidence or a cosmic chuckle, a laugh at the world of propriety, order and, yes, even awards.