Good afternoon! If you’re not following comedian Brian Jordan Alvarez on social media, do yourself a favor this weekend and check out his videos. My favorite character is the rich Southern aunt. Here’s what you need to know today.
1. Tensions emerge between Pritzker and Johnson over the migrant housing crisis
Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters this week that he has concerns about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $29.4 million plan to house migrants in “winterized base camps” instead of unused buildings.
“I have concerns about it, and we continue to have conversations about it,” Pritzker said. [Chicago Sun-Times]
The governor’s comments were met with heated words from one of Johnson’s top allies.
“This is particularly ludicrous coming from JB given that lack of meaningful support from the State of Illinois has pushed the city in this direction,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, the mayor’s floor leader in the City Council, wrote on X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter.
“New York state has opened multiple migrant shelters. The State of Illinois operates ZERO shelters. ZERO. Open some shelters JB!”
A spokesperson for Pritzker told Capitol Fax the state has offered to open shelters, but neither then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot nor Johnson had accepted the aid until recently. [Capitol Fax]
Meanwhile, a trust fund is helping Chicago landlords provide rental assistance to migrants. [WBEZ]
2. Investigators say they found no evidence Chicago Police engaged in sexual misconduct with migrants
An investigation into explosive allegations that Chicago cops engaged in sexual misconduct with migrants has been closed without finding any wrongdoing, the city’s police oversight agency announced today.
“The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said investigators were unable to find any victims of sexual misconduct, an issue COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten initially raised during an uncharacteristic news conference weeks after the probe was opened in July,” my colleague Tom Schuba reports.
The unfounded allegations appear to have originated from a text message that was circulating among police officials and other city employees.
The text message claimed several officers had improper sexual contact with migrants, including one cop from the Ogden District in North Lawndale who was identified by name and accused of impregnating a teenager.
It’s unclear who wrote the text message. [Chicago Sun-Times]
3. One of the women shot during a White Sox game breaks her silence
The woman gave an exclusive interview with ABC 7 about the bizarre and mysterious shooting during last month’s White Sox game against the Oakland A’s.
The woman, who granted the interview with ABC 7 on the condition of anonymity, said she still does not know how she was shot in the leg during the game.
When asked if she brought a gun into Guaranteed Rate Field and accidentally shot herself, the woman said, “Absolutely not.”
A lawyer for the woman previously told the Chicago Sun-Times that photographic evidence, X-rays of her injuries and medical experts determined her gunshot wound “was not self-inflicted and was not the result of her accidentally discharging a firearm.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
Meanwhile, there is some fallout within the Chicago Police Department, which has been criticized for allowing the baseball game to continue.
A high-ranking police official who had been working security at the stadium was demoted amid concerns he prioritized the interests of the White Sox. [Chicago Sun-Times]
4. The Chicago Teachers Union will have ‘strong demands’ in contract talks with the Johnson administration
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates says the union will have “some pretty strong demands” even though the mayor of Chicago is now one of their own: former teacher turned paid CTU organizer Brandon Johnson.
In negotiations, “the driving force has always been inequity and injustice that Black and Brown students and their families experience in this city. And that injustice did not roll away on April 4. We just got another gladiator in a place of power,” Davis Gates told my colleague Fran Spielman.
Among the issues teachers are prioritizing at the negotiating table are smaller class sizes; more bilingual support staff to serve the children of asylum-seekers; building time into the elementary school day for teachers to collaborate; and more “sustainable community schools,” Davis Gates said.
The current contract for teachers will expire next summer. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools will need $14.4 billion to address emergency building repairs and fully renovate all 522 of its public school buildings, according to a report. [WBEZ]
5. The best books coming out this fall
If you’re looking for something new to read, this week’s episode of Nerdette takes a look at upcoming releases that are worth checking out.
Among them is Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. It’s “exciting to see a woman for the first time taking a look at Homer’s words,” says Gwen Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw.
And there’s Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park, which is billed as a “wild, sweeping novel that imagines an alternate secret history of Korea and the traces it leaves on the present—loaded with assassins and mad poets, RPGs and slasher films, pop bands and the perils of social media.” [WBEZ]
Meanwhile, if you find yourself in a reading rut, here are tips for getting back into the habit. [NPR]
Here’s what else is happening
- Dianne Feinstein, longest serving woman in the Senate, is being remembered as a liberal champion. [NPR]
- A government shutdown appears all but inevitable with no deal in sight. [AP]
- The autoworkers strike expanded to a Ford assembly plant on Chicago’s South Side. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- Want to make friends from a different economic class? Try your local Applebee’s or Olive Garden, a study suggests. [WBEZ]
Oh, and one more thing …
A Nevada grand jury indicted a man in the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, prosecutors announced today.
The man, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, has “long been known to investigators and has himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the Cadillac” when the drive-by shooting took place, The Associated Press reports.
Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down near the Las Vegas Strip. He was riding in a BMW that was stopped at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later. [AP]
Tell me something good ...
October is quickly approaching, and I’ve been in the mood for scary stuff. What’s one of your favorite scary movies or stories?
Nancy Trock writes:
“When I was a little kid of 6 back in 1963, Dad took our family (piled into the station wagon ) and headed to the drive-in movie theater to see Jason and the Argonauts. That night, I kept the whole family up because I was terrified that skeletons could and would rise up through the floors. Those were amazing special effects 60 years ago.”
Johnny writes:
“Every October, I like to watch The Shining with Jack Nicholson. From the opening credits to the maze scene at the end, it is an absolute nail biter. Every time I watch it, I get scared in all the usual scenes. So good!”
And Kathryn DeGraff writes:
“Oh dear, for me, the scariest movie ever was The Exorcist. I’d read the book and enjoyed it thoroughly, but watching the film was horrendous! I held onto the arm of my boyfriend, alternately squeezing in terror, or pounding in fright.
“He took it all, the gasps, fingers pinching, and hiding my eyes, in stride. I still have a hard time listening to ‘Tubular Bells,’ the soundtrack score. But he ended up marrying me after all that … and still will pre-screen any horror movie before suggesting I watch it with him! Terror and love both in this memory.”
Thanks for all the messages this week. It was nice hearing from y’all!
