Good morning, Chicago.
Donald Trump for years has promoted baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. In truth, Trump was the one who tried to steal the election, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a sprawling indictment that paints the former president as desperate to cling to power.
The Justice Department indictment accuses Trump of conspiring with allies and concocting various schemes in a brazen attempt to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden as his legal challenges floundered in court.
It’s the third time this year the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary has been charged in a criminal case. But it’s the first case to try to hold Trump responsible for his efforts to remain in power during the chaotic weeks between his election loss and the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Here’s a look at the charges Trump faces and other key issues in the indictment.
And here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Wisconsin Supreme Court flips to liberal control
Janet Protasiewicz, who made abortion rights a focus of her winning election campaign and called Republican-drawn redistricting maps “rigged,” marked the start of her 10-year term with a swearing-in ceremony in the state Capitol Rotunda attended by an overflow crowd of hundreds, including many Democratic officeholders.
Protasiewicz’s win carries tremendous weight in Wisconsin, where the state Supreme Court has been the last word on some of the biggest political and policy battles of the past decade-plus.
South Suburban Airport plans get lift
Legislation that calls on the state to seek a partner to build an air cargo airport in the south suburbs was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker after a major push by area legislators and development groups.
Protests held across region against Indiana abortion ban taking effect
Across the region and across the state, the Indiana National Organization for Women held vigils in support of abortion rights in advance of the state’s near-total ban on abortions slated to take effect Tuesday, though there was a glimmer of hope for reproductive rights supporters.
Emmett Till signage unveiled at Bronzeville church that’s becoming a national monument
“The power of an open casket, changed not only our nation, but changed the world,” said former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago, who championed an anti-lynching bill named after Emmett Till that President Joe Biden signed into law last year.
Till’s murder and the activism of his mother that followed caught the nation’s attention about the harsh cruelty of racism and helped spur the fight for civil rights.
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will lead a sweeping review of Northwestern University and its beleaguered athletics department, university leaders announced amid the fallout of a football hazing scandal that expanded to allegations of abuse and bullying on other teams and prompted multiple lawsuits.
A Northwestern news release says Lynch’s review will look at the culture of the athletics department as well as the university’s ability “to detect, report and respond to potential misconduct in its athletics programs, including hazing, bullying and discrimination of any kind.”
Why this US team lacks that 2019 magic at World Cup
The Americans have advanced to the knockout stage at this edition of the tournament, but just barely after a 0-0 draw with Portugal in their final group match.
With just one win and a pair of draws, the United States fell to second in Group E behind the Netherlands. The United States scored just four goals in group play — a sharp contrast to the 18 they scored in the group in 2019. In each of their first six matches four years ago in France, the Americans scored within the opening 12 minutes.
Our 18 must-dos before summer ends
August always arrives with a bit of baggage — that melancholy sense that the season’s days are numbered. Whether you’re a high schooler or haven’t been in a classroom for an age, you know summer break is winding down, pools are closing soon and fall is out there waiting.
From the critics, columnists and regular contributors to Arts + Entertainment, we bring a message: There’s still time. Carpe diem and all that. Here’s what’s on our lists in this glorious last full month of summer 2023.
Column: In defense of background TV
One type of show isn’t better than the other and the TV landscape is vast enough that it should be offering variety, from the serious and sophisticated to shows that work as pleasant television companions while you’re paying your bills or in bed with a cold, writes critic Nina Metz.
Life is hard. It’s OK, sometimes, for TV to be easy.
As the recently released historical drama “Oppenheimer” exceeds $400 million at the global box office, roots of the biographical film’s namesake — and the Manhattan Project he led — run deep in the Chicago area.
Among the most important Manhattan Project sites was the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, which drew brilliant scientific minds from across the nation. In 1942, in a squash court under the stands at Stagg Field at the university, Nobel Prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction — a scientific advancement that paved the way for the atomic bomb.
After the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Manhattan Project scientists founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, urging arms control and raising awareness of threats to humankind. Oppenheimer served as the first chair of the Bulletin’s board of sponsors.
Today, the Bulletin continues to warn of manmade threats to humanity: Its iconic Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical timepiece, represents how close humanity is to global catastrophe based on the state of international affairs, with midnight representing the end of the world.
