Good morning, Chicago.
Mark Brandt and Wes Conkling got up at 7 a.m. to make it from Aurora to Chicago for Sunday’s Pride Parade.
They sat on the sidewalk waiting for the procession to start, holding hands.
“I love the oneness of it all,” Brandt said. “I come from a family that’s pretty homophobic, if I’m being honest. I haven’t always been able to be open with myself and who I am.”
The march, which is the biggest in the Midwest, lasted for hours. Dozens of attendees said they felt the historic levels of support for LGBTQ people that have grown over the past few years, despite recent anti-LGBTQ legislation and some backlash.
Conkling donned rainbow suspenders and had a rainbow flag painted on his cheek. He said he remembers what it was like 10 years ago, and called today’s attitude toward LGBTQ communities a “radical transformation.” As a transgender male, he said he appreciates Gen Z’s more open attitude toward trans people.
“As an older person — 27 or 28 — starting this process, it felt really nice that there was this burgeoning community to slide right into,” he said.
From Uptown to Lakeview, floats, trucks, golf carts and cars decked out with streamers and flags rolled down the street. People danced, played brass and beat drums, hoisted signs above their heads, did cartwheels and honked as they proceeded.
Read the full story from Nell Salzman and Vivian La. See photos from the 52nd annual parade captured by Tribune photographer Brian Cassella.
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Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi owns a million-dollar, 120-year-old Prairie-style, two-story home on a spacious corner lot on the eastern side of Oak Park’s Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District.
Within a five-block area of Kaegi’s residence, neighbors with similar homes saw their properties’ assessed value — used to figure local property taxes — increase by an average of 32% this year compared with 2020 in the every-three-year reassessment of Oak Park Township.
But the home of Kaegi, in his fifth year as the person responsible for running the office that decides the value of homes ahead of Cook County property tax bills being mailed, saw the assessed value of his home drop, county records show.
Carlos Ramirez, who was a police officer in Venezuela before he says he was persecuted by government officials, now sleeps on an air mattress on the floor of a police station in Chicago.
The Tribune spent a night at the 5th District station to observe what it is like for migrants to fall asleep on hard tile floors, with bright lights shining in their faces, residents spilling into the station at any hour of the night and police sirens occasionally blaring. Para leer en español, haga clic aquí.
Antonio House hasn’t known freedom since he was 19, when he was locked up as a suspect in the 1993 kidnappings and killings of two teens on Chicago’s West Side.
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As race cars turn and brake, as tires screech, fine particulate matter is released into the air. And unlike commuter vehicles, race cars aren’t required to have pollution control devices that filter exhaust gases. Many residents are worried about the NASCAR race, complaining about pollution concerns, as well as traffic, safety and noise.
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Faithful followers of NHL superstar Connor McDavid refer to him as “McJesus,” but it’s prospect Connor Bedard who’s being treated like the second coming now.
Projected to be the No. 1 pick by the Chicago Blackhawks in Wednesday’s first round of the two-day NHL draft in Nashville, Tennessee, Bedard basically has been deified since he was 13.
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In the waning moments of her concert Friday at a rafters-packed United Center, Stevie Nicks sang about getting older. She echoed the sentiments in back-to-back lines of “Landslide,” a classic she has performed across six decades.
Yet as black-and-white pictures of Christine McVie — Nicks’ longtime Fleetwood Mac cohort and best friend who died last November — flashed on a curved projection screen behind her, the words took on added weight.
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All the 85 fireworks shows around Chicagoland for the Fourth of July
The Fourth of July always seems to arrive before we know it, the height of summer here already. With the holiday weekend comes fireworks; check out the Tribune’s list to find a fireworks show near you.
