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Isabel’s morning briefing

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Illinois

* Here you go…

Tribune | Budget, Bears, Chicago school board and ethics: Illinois legislators face busy agenda in spring session’s final week:

* Capitol News Illinois | Illinois Supreme Court considers whether a fetus can be a ‘victim’ of murder: In 2007, Reginald Lane shot and killed Jwonda Thurston, his pregnant girlfriend. For the murder, he was sentenced to life in prison, following state statute for someone who is found guilty of killing “more than one victim.”

* Daily Herald | ‘My kids will have to live with the decisions that I make’: How parenthood affects moms in office: When Kara Lambert first ran for Mundelein trustee in 2019, a man cornered her in a local Walgreens and asked how she effectively could serve while also being a mom to her then-2-year-old son, Theo. It’s not the kind of question a father running for office likely would face.

* Sun-Times | Former red-light camera exec who helped feds gets his bribery case dismissed: During a telephone hearing that lasted around a minute, federal prosecutors dismissed the single count of conspiracy to bribe a public official that had hung over businessman Omar Maani’s head since he was charged in 2020.

* Tribune | Brandon Johnson: His rise from union organizer to Chicago’s new progressive mayor, and the challenges he inherits: The mayor-elect, 47, will enter his inauguration ceremony on a mission to uplift the working class after campaigning on an anti-establishment platform that denounced what he called “the tale of two cities.” A former Cook County commissioner and teachers union organizer, Johnson will succeed Lori Lightfoot after her tumultuous term, which saw widespread discontent following the pandemic and civil unrest.

* Sun-Times | Migrant crisis ‘one of the most challenging’ problems facing Chicago’s new mayor, chief of staff says: Rich Guidice, who spent nearly 20 years running the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said he has never seen an emergency quite like the thousands of asylum-seekers who have poured into Chicago since September, with scores more on the way.

* WTTW | Brandon Johnson Commits to Reopening Chicago’s Public Mental Health Clinics Closed 11 Years Ago: “We are going to reopen the mental health clinics,” Johnson said, putting it first in a list of his top priorities, which he said included fully funding Chicago’s schools, making sure Chicago’s public transportation system is clean, safe and efficient and Chicagoans have access to clean water and fresh food.

* WBEZ | Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to Illinois lawmakers: Fund gun enforcement: Dart, who has an annual budget of more than $500 million, set up a task force to go after guns in 2013. However, he said with the other demands on his office he couldn’t devote enough officers to go after the thousands of licenses revoked in Cook County every year.

* Sun-Times | Chicago man accused of selling fake Cubs hats while on probation for selling fake White Sox tickets: Bruce Lee was arrested Wednesday after undercover officers purchased the counterfeit Cubs bucket hats from Lee on two separate occasions in Wrigleyville, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said in a news release.

* Crain’s | Groupon terminating HQ lease early: Groupon is ending its lease for its River North headquarters two years early as it risks running out of cash, creating a big leasing challenge for Chicago developer Sterling Bay much sooner than expected. The struggling online-deal company recently executed an option to terminate its lease at 600 W. Chicago Ave. as of Jan. 31, 2024, according to a regulatory disclosure filed earlier this month. Groupon’s lease for nearly 300,000 square feet was due to expire in January 2026, but the company paid a termination fee of $9.6 million to end its commitment early. The imminent exit is not surprising, given the company’s warning to investors this week that there is substantial doubt it can remain a “going concern.”

* Daily Herald | Campton Hills trustee-elect Timothy Morgan vows to be seated despite 2002 Michigan DUI conviction: Morgan previously deferred taking his oath of office at the May 2 Campton Hills Village Board meeting because Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser had warned him that a 2002 felony DUI conviction in Michigan made him ineligible.

* NBC | Migrants say rumors encouraged crossing before Title 42 ended: In total, Border Patrol apprehended just over 6,200 undocumented migrants crossing the border on Friday, the first day after Title 42 was lifted, two Homeland Security officials told NBC News on Saturday. That figure was lower than the 11,000 apprehended each day on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the 10,000 apprehended on Thursday.

* CNN | Border crossings down 50% after Title 42: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tells CNN’s Dana Bash that only 4,200 migrants were encountered at the border on Saturday, down from more than 10,000 per day earlier in the week.

* Tribune | These mothers sell flowers on the streets of Chicago for Mother’s Day: Every Mother’s Day, Minerva Garcia is surrounded by hundreds of bouquets of roses. The red ones are her favorites. They remind her of love, she said as she softly touched a petal. There are also dozens of white and pink roses, but none of them are for her.

* Sun-Times | Giant snapping turtle ‘Chonkosaurus’ evidence of a much cleaner Chicago River: Everything about the video screams Chicago, from the previously polluted stream of water to Santore’s recognizable accent as he marvels at the turtle’s size. “That’s a Chicago river snapper,” Santore’s friend comments from the background. “Are you kidding me?”

* Daily Beast | There Are 2 AI Booms Happening. We’re Caught in the Middle.: In December, the Princeton student used his holiday break to create GPTZero, a tool for educators to help them determine whether student essays were written with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Buoyed by growing concerns about the emerging technology and the nascent AI boom, Tian’s tool went viral—garnering more than 6 million users in just a few months.

* AP | ‘Robo umps’ reach Triple-A, but MLB rollout is uncertain: ‘You’re losing some of the human emotion of the game’: “Nobody complains about anything anymore with the strike zone because there’s nothing to complain about,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said after his first series with the so-called “robo-ump.” “You take that as good and bad. It’s kind of entertaining to watch a guy argue.”

* Sun-Times | White Sox drop another series, lose 4-3 to Astros: Lucas Giolito was strong after the first inning. Luis Robert Jr. continued his torrid May by hitting a home run in his third consecutive game. And Jake Burger returned from the injured list with a two-run homer of his own. But those are just details for a White Sox team that has a major hole to escape, one that got deeper with their 4-3 loss Sunday to the Astros.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, May 15, 23 @ 7:40 am

Comments

Hopefully this weekend was the start of a Cardinal comeback. Sweeping the Fighting Sweet Carolines (aka Red Sox) in Boston.

Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Monday, May 15, 23 @ 8:34 am
Can’t wait for the robo ump to deploy in MLB. Have seen too many incorrect ball/strike calls either lead to big innings or choke off potential rallies. Unfortunately, Angel Hernandez will still miss calls though.

Comment by Captain Obvious Monday, May 15, 23 @ 9:48 am
==Can’t wait for the robo ump to deploy in MLB==

That would be the end of me watching any major league baseball games. We don’t need technology taking the place of umpires. The human aspect is part of the game - including the bad.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, May 15, 23 @ 10:01 am
For any Chicago baseball fan, this is a very funny headline: “Chicago man accused of selling fake Cubs hats while on probation for selling fake White Sox tickets”.

What’s less funny is that undercover officers were assigned to bust this guy when- I don’t know- there’s supposedly a wave of violent crime going on in Chicago??

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Monday, May 15, 23 @ 10:05 am
===What’s less funny is that undercover officers were assigned to bust this guy when- I don’t know- there’s supposedly a wave of violent crime going on in Chicago?===

The sting was announced by the county sheriff, who in a story right above that headline said “he couldn’t devote enough officers to go after the thousands of [FOID cards] revoked in Cook County every year.”

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 15, 23 @ 10:12 am
Robo-umps,
Is nothing sacred? And yet I am attracted by the sentence, no one is complaining about the strike zone because there is nothing to complain about.

I do wonder, don’t umps have sensors to tell them if the ball was in the strike zone as it crossed the plate? Eyes can be deceived and tricked, sensors not so much.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, May 15, 23 @ 10:19 am