Good morning, Chicago.
A new chapter to the Daley family’s Chicago legacy was written Monday in a federal courtroom, where a jury convicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson of tax-related crimes stemming from a line of credit he received from a failed bank in his family’s Bridgeport neighborhood.
After a weeklong trial and hours of closing arguments, the jury deliberated about 3 1/2 hours before finding Thompson guilty of two counts of lying to federal regulators about his loans and five counts of filing false tax returns that illegally claimed mortgage interest deductions that he never paid.
It now falls to Mayor Lori Lightfoot to name someone to succeed him in the Daley family’s historical 11th Ward seat of power on the Chicago City Council. The mayor wants to set a clear precedent now for how she will go about picking a new alderman, because she could face other vacancies.
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A Chicago Public Schools principal and the athletic director for Vernon Hills High School have been ordered to appear in court later this month to explain why they should not be held in contempt for allegedly violating a temporary restraining order preventing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s school mask mandate from being enforced statewide.
Two CPS parents who participated in the school mask lawsuit filed a petition against the Chicago Board of Education, saying their children were told to wear a mask or leave Mount Greenwood Elementary School. A similar petition has been brought against Community High School District 128, which includes Vernon Hills and Libertyville high schools.
Naperville District 203 and Indian Prairie District 204 to lift mandatory mask rules
For years, Marcus Floyd has maintained he remembers nothing about the murder for which he was convicted. Floyd was severely injured in the 2010 shootout that killed Thomas Wortham IV, a young off-duty Chicago police officer and Army veteran just home from Iraq. The damage to Floyd’s brain left him with no memory of what happened that night, he has said.
This week, in a highly unusual proceeding, a Cook County jury will be tasked with answering a complicated question: Given Floyd’s claims of memory loss, was he fit to stand trial for Wortham’s murder in late 2015?
One of the biggest polluters of Lake Michigan agreed Monday to pay $3 million in fines after a previous owner dumped a plume of concentrated ammonia and cyanide into a northwest Indiana tributary and then failed to warn neighbors until thousands of dead fish floated past a marina days later.
A legal settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond requires Cleveland Cliffs to prevent future violations of federal and state environmental laws by overhauling how pollution is treated and disposed of at its Burns Harbor steel mill. The company also agreed in writing to promptly inform nearby communities and Indiana Dunes National Park if the plant’s operators exceed limits on cyanide released into the East Branch of the Little Calumet River.
Side projects have always been Francis Almeda’s thing. A graphic designer who worked at a number of advertising agencies, Almeda was always the office’s go-to guy to discuss entrepreneurial dreams because he’d find a way to help bring them to life. Now, he’s continuing his passion of helping people with their side projects through Side Practice Coffee, his cafe in Ravenswood that showcases small businesses through pop-ups and collaborations.
“I didn’t want to open up just any coffee shop,” Almeda said. “Side projects were a huge part of my life, and I owned a business already and created this community, so why not showcase the people I already had in my network and give them a place to share their work?”
Michael Jordan’s Highland Park mansion, listed at $15M, will soon mark 10 years on the market
At the end of February, retired Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan’s 32,683-square-foot Legend Point mansion in Highland Park will mark a rare distinction: It will celebrate 10 years of being for sale.
Although His Airness’ listing price today of $14.85 million is almost exactly half of the $29 million amount that he once had sought for the nine-bedroom mansion and its 7.37-acre property, he still has found no takers. And he has clung to his current $14.85 million asking price now for almost seven years.
