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Isabel’s morning briefing

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Illinois

* Here you go!…

Sun-Times | One-quarter of detainees in Cook County juvenile lockup are shot, killed after serving time, study finds:

* CBS Chicago | Rape crisis advocates say they are facing major funding crisis, need state’s help: As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported Monday night, rape crisis advocates are looking to Springfield for help in beefing up their funding – in part to make up for a federal funding shortfall. But that money is not guaranteed.

* Sun-Times | Illinois traffic deaths dip slightly in 2022, but fatalities are still above pre-pandemic levels: ‘Not a cause to celebrate.’: After spiking during the pandemic, Illinois saw 1,280 traffic fatalities in 2022, a 4% drop from the 1,334 deaths in 2021.

* Fox 2 | Illinois can serve summons via text: Amendment: Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis and the Illinois Supreme Court announced Monday amendments to Supreme Court Rule 102, which provides for the electronic service of summons and complaints in civil proceedings, “in recognition of society’s increased use of electronic methods to communicate,” a news release says.

* Crain’s | Illinois’ bill backlog at lowest level in 15 years: Comptroller Susana Mendoza today reported that the state’s accounts payable, essentially its backlog of unpaid bills for day-to-day government operations, was down to $943 million as of Monday morning. That’s the first time it’s been below the $1 billion mark in 15 years — specifically, since August 2008 — with the oldest bill in her queue all of 16 days.

* Tribune | As he prepares to be mayor, Brandon Johnson steering through city rules and supporters’ expectations: As Johnson prepares to take office in less than a month, one of the heads of his transition team has sought a waiver from the city’s Board of Ethics to avoid violating a policy designed to stop former employees from coming back to lobby or influence subjects they worked on for the city.

* WBEZ | Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson’s new chief of staff is mum on policing proposals, but sees power staying with the mayor’s office: Rich Guidice, the former head of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, was named as Johnson’s No. 2 this week, along with state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, D-Chicago, as Johnson’s first deputy chief of staff. As right hands to the mayor, chiefs of staff play a significant role in managing the mayor’s office, helping develop policy and maintaining relationships with city agencies.

* Crain’s | Meet Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s transition and leadership teams: As Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s May 15 inauguration nears, we’re starting to get a better picture of who will make up his inner circle. From labor leaders to a heavyweight City Hall insider, these are the people shaping the Johnson administration.

* Sun-Times | Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 elects new president: Pat Cleary, who has spent the last 12 years as vice president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2, replaces Jim Tracy, the two-term president. Cleary easily defeated challenger Rob Tebbens, Local 2’s political and legislative director, with 67% of the vote.

* Tribune | Consultant sued by Paul Vallas calls $700,000 lawsuit ‘shameful and unfounded’: Vallas and his campaign organization sued Chimaobi Enyia in Cook County Circuit Court last Thursday, claiming Enyia ripped off Vallas when in the final weeks of the race for mayor Enyia was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to build support for Vallas in many Black communities but did little work. The lawsuit states that Vallas was the victim of fraud, unjust enrichment and “in the alternative, breach of contract” by Enyia.

* WTTW | Prominent Lightfoot Supporter, Business Owner Pays $5,000 Ethics Fine for Lobbying City Hall Without Registering: Carmen Rossi, who also owns several Chicago nightclubs and holds the liquor license for the Lollapalooza music festival, lobbied the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department on behalf of his firm, Chicago Parking Solutions, LLC, even though Rossi was not registered to lobby for the firm, according to the settlement agreement he reached with the Chicago Board of Ethics.

* Tribune | ‘Horrific on all fronts:’ North Lawndale residents cry for wide-sweeping violence prevention: Zaiden A. Collins, of Berwyn, suffered blunt force trauma to the abdomen inside a residence in the North Lawndale neighborhood’s 1300 block of South Kedzie Avenue, police said. The death was ruled a homicide, but as of Monday afternoon, the investigation was ongoing. There are no updates beyond the original statement that Zaiden was put down for a nap and then found unresponsive. Violence Interrupters founder Tio Hardiman, longtime anti-violence advocate, called for more awareness from the media and a hastened police investigation at a news conference, where he gazed upon the small audience of reporters with conviction.

* AP | Singer R. Kelly moved to North Carolina prison from Chicago: Robert Sylvester Kelly was transferred from the Metropolitan Correctional Center Chicago to the federal correctional institution in Butner, North Carolina, on April 19, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone said Monday via email. The bureau doesn’t disclose the reasons for inmate transfers due to privacy, safety and security reasons, he wrote.

* WBEZ | How Chicago became a hotbed of twang: “In the early era of string band music — before they even used the name ‘country music’ — it was a rural thing. It wasn’t a Southern thing,” Guarino said in an interview at his home in Lincoln Square. “It was music from rural people, for rural people. And the rural people had moved to Chicago. Chicago was the biggest city next to the rural area. You can drive an hour outside Chicago, and you’re in rural America.”

* WBEZ | The Chicago Yacht Club has a new commodore, a woman — the first in the club’s 148-year history: At the start of 2023, she took over the top job at the Chicago Yacht Club, becoming the first woman in the club’s 148-year history to hold the title. The job doesn’t come with a fancy hat or a double-breasted jacket with gold epaulets; it doesn’t come with an office or pay either. But the significance of the moment isn’t lost on the 4-foot-11 woman. Back in the mid-1990s, when she first considered joining the club, a fellow boat owner urged her husband to join — but not her.

* Tribune | Chicago’s barbecue revolution is here — if only the city would remove the red tape: But while offset smokers are gaining in popularity all over the country, you won’t find them in Chicago barbecue restaurants (with one known exception). While this could be mere pitmaster preference, especially considering how many kinds of smokers are available, that wasn’t universally true. “In a dream world, we’d be using an offset smoker here,” said Dave Bonner, pitmaster at Green Street Smoked Meats. “We have one for events. I like how they cook. There’s even heat distribution.”

* Daily Herald | From The Who to The Shadows of Knight, The Cellar was Arlington Heights’ ‘cultural zenith’: Fifty-five years ago to the date Wednesday night, Paul Sampson took the stage of his Arlington Heights teen music club — its decor of black lights and black netting hanging from the ceiling — and introduced a group that was to perform “White Room.”

* Daily Journal | Pickleball’s growth serves up new opportunities for play locally: “Our courts are constantly filled and the sport has grown rapidly since I started in my position in 2019,” said Mike Curren, sports director at the Kankakee Area YMCA. “Some have joined the YMCA just to be able to partake in pickleball.”

* Tribune | Beth Murphy, the Murphy’s Bleachers owner who battled the Chicago Cubs over the Wrigleyville rooftops, dies at 68: Murphy’s battles with the Cubs over rooftop owners’ rights played out in newspapers and on local newscasts for years, pitting the small business owners against one of baseball’s oldest and most valuable franchises. It made Murphy a local celebrity and one of Wrigleyville’s most respected business owners.

posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 7:42 am

Comments

Beth Murphy was not a headline I wanted or expected to read yesterday. Rest in peace.

Comment by Bothanspied Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 8:01 am
I’m already cringing at the inevitable fake summons/complaints scam texts.

Comment by Torco Sign Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 8:47 am
I assume an unsolicited text is bogus unless proven otherwise. What would be the penalty of ignoring these summons?

Comment by a drop in Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 9:17 am
Mary Ann Ahern tweeted last night that Kim Foxx will soon announce that she won’t run for reelection.

Comment by Big Dipper Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 9:20 am
Re: Fox 2 Story on Summons by Mail Amendment

I wonder if the Illinois Sheriff’s Association will have something to say about their workload being lightened yet again, and their fees being reduced.

Comment by H-W Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 10:21 am
@Big Dipper, so hope that is correct. everyone got all over Anita Alvarez for taking so long to charge in the LMcDonald case. Meanwhile not a peep as Foxx took even longer to charge in another of those police heater shootings. she did not even hold a valid law license when she declared for SA the first time meaning she had put on hold her required classes to keep the license and had to take classes to get it in good standing. she’s a disaster.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Apr 25, 23 @ 11:31 am