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Good morning, Chicago. Here are some of the top stories you need to know to start your day.
How a Chicago college student ended up in the middle of an FBI investigation into Chinese spying
Months after Ji Chaoqun began his studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chinese intelligence officers reached out and tasked him with gathering biographical data on eight Chinese nationals working in the U.S. as scientists and engineers.
Ji, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of being a foreign agent of the People’s Republic of China.
His case symbolizes a growing area of worry for U.S. authorities: a sophisticated and far-flung mission by the Chinese government to have spies and foreign agents steal ideas and technology from firms and defense contractors across the U.S.
President Donald Trump repeatedly prodded Ukraine’s new leader to work with the U.S. attorney general and lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, according to a rough transcript summarizing the call released Wednesday.
The conversation between the two leaders is one piece of a whistleblower’s complaint, which followed the July 25 call. The complaint is central to the formal impeachment inquiry launched by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Column: Get ready for a nasty fight. Impeachment is a battle Donald Trump can’t afford to lose.
Column: Trump betrayed U.S. in Ukraine call and deserves impeachment: “Sometimes the act is in plain sight”
Column: Democrats make a decision on Trump impeachment. Is it real or just more natural gas?
A Des Plaines man was found guilty on two felony hate crime counts for berating and questioning the citizenship of a woman who was wearing a shirt emblazoned with a design of the Puerto Rican flag while preparing to celebrate her birthday at a Cook County forest preserve. A jury deliberated for about 31/2 hours before finding Timothy Trybus guilty.
Trybus hung his head and wept after the verdict was read, a demeanor strikingly different than the one portrayed in a video that his victim, Mia Irizarry, captured during their encounter last year.
Kentayvia Blackful had a desire to succeed, a passion for serving others and a smile that could light up a room, people who knew her well said.
A leader in the classroom and on the basketball court, the star sixth grade student-athlete at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School in Harvey died Tuesday, on her 12th birthday, the day after she was shot in the head while sitting at home making birthday party invitations for an upcoming skating party.
When Illinois allows legal commercial marijuana sales next year, it could face more widespread shortages of the product and corruption related to licensing than other states, at least one industry observer believes.
As co-founder and CEO of Marijuana Business Daily, Cassandra Farrington has seen shortages of cannabis almost every time a state or country launches a recreational cannabis program. But Illinois faces special constraints.
When Illinois lawmakers acted to legalize marijuana sales, they included provisions to wipe out lower-level cannabis convictions. But the process can be more complicated than it is supposed to be for some.
Marijuana company Cresco Labs got the OK to move its medical dispensary into the John Barleycorn building near Wrigley Field.
Jimmy John’s Sandwiches, which has grown to more than 2,800 shops since its founding in Charleston, Ill., 36 years ago, is getting sold to the owner of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In and Rusty Taco. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The sale comes as Jimmy John’s faces intense competition for consumers’ lunch dollars in a fast-casual sector crowded not only with sandwich shops but also salad, burrito, pizza and poke chains.
Urban designer Emmanuel Pratt and cartoonist Lynda Barry are two of the 26 winners of the 2019 MacArthur Foundation “genius grants,” the no-strings-attached $625,000 prizes given annually to artists, scholars and other creative thinkers, the Chicago-based philanthropy announced Wednesday.
A handful of this year’s MacArthur Fellows, as the program is formally known, have Chicago ties. Here’s a complete list of the winners.
Planning to attend Open House Chicago? Here are Blair Kamin’s top 10 picks.
The underlying theme of Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin’s 10 picks for this year’s Open House Chicago is superlatives: the world’s tallest church building, the former world’s largest post office, and the original Sears Tower, from which radio station WLS (the letters stand for “World’s Largest Store”) once broadcast. Here’s his full list.
