Good morning, Chicago.
As Mayor Lori Lightfoot gears up for her expected reelection campaign after three tumultuous years, she finds herself in a familiar position: on the defensive.
Lightfoot the rookie politician won in 2019 in part because of her credentials as an outsider, but Lightfoot the incumbent does not have that advantage. And in just the past eight days two candidates, Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez and businessman Willie Wilson, have announced plans to run for mayor with expectations several more will join the field.
The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt sums up some of Lightfoot’s challenges: During her three-plus years in office, the mayor has faced spikes in crime, hasn’t run as transparent an administration as promised, and engaged in constant fights with unions representing Chicago teachers and police — all while struggling to forge good relationships with politicians or leaders in the city’s business community.
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CTA and police increased security to combat a spike in transit crime. Will it work?
A month after police and CTA officials announced increased security on the city’s transit system, a series of attacks highlight the challenges city officials face in tackling transit crime.
In just over one week, at least five attacks that put people in the hospital were reported on or near the CTA, including a fight that led to a beating and stabbing outside of the Roosevelt train station downtown and a shooting on a bus in Lawndale, according to Chicago police. The attacks come as CTA is grappling with spikes in violent crime and complaints that more riders are breaking rules that prohibit smoking, drinking and other nuisance behavior on trains and buses.
In New York, police arrested a man wanted in the Brooklyn subway shooting that wounded 10 people
Biden taps Judge John Z. Lee, attorney Nancy Maldonado for federal judgeships in Chicago
President Joe Biden on Wednesday made a pair of potentially historic nominations to federal judicial positions in Chicago, including what could be the first Asian American to serve on the appellate court and the first Hispanic female federal district judge in all of Illinois.
The White House announced Biden has nominated U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Chicago and hears cases from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lee would be the first Asian American to serve on the court, which recently served as a steppingstone for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Biden also has nominated Nancy L. Maldonado, a partner in the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland P.C., to serve as U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois. If confirmed, Maldonado would be the first Hispanic woman to serve as a federal district judge in the state of Illinois, according to the White House.
A small Illinois college named after Lincoln needs a miracle to survive. And time is running out.
The point of no return for Lincoln College will arrive within days, and when it does, the bad news will be final: After 157 years, this small liberal arts school named after Illinois’ most illustrious son will close. Unless, that is, someone comes forward with $50 million.
That’s what president David Gerlach says is necessary to secure the future of the predominantly Black institution, which has seen its finances devastated by the pandemic and a ransomware attack. If such a hefty donation doesn’t come soon, he said, the college’s fate will be sealed.
“You have to really dig deep to want to go to class and make it feel like it’s worth something,” said Summer Loyd, a junior from Chicago. “It feels like there’s no point in continuing.”
After the Russian attacks upended the daily lives of millions of Ukrainians, including college students, DePaul partnered with Ukrainian Catholic University and other higher education institutions in the region to enroll more than 100 Ukrainian college students into 42 of the Chicago university’s online courses this spring quarter.
“We were perfectly positioned to be able to help, because we operate on the quarter system, and have had a partnership with the Ukrainian Catholic University for a few years,” said GianMario Besana, associate provost for global engagement and online learning at DePaul.
Pat Foley has been called a thing or two during his four decades as a hockey announcer. But boring is not one of them. And when Foley calls his final game Thursday night at the United Center, where the Hawks play the San Jose Sharks, an era of classic Chicago sports announcers will come to an end.
“Chicago is a sports town where the announcer is more than just a play-by-play man,” Paul Sullivan writes. “He’s an entertainer and a critic, the voice of sanity when things are going poorly and the life of the party when things are going well.”
