Good morning, Chicago.
James Mertes sees dead people — on a court jury list.
Mertes, a criminal defense attorney, was alarmed by the glut of dead people whose names turned up on a recent list of potential jurors in rural Whiteside County. Now, he and county prosecutors are wondering whether Illinois has sufficient safeguards to purge the deceased from its jury pools.
The issue could potentially affect other criminal trial cases — making the case the “canary in a coal mine” for the statewide jury system, Mertes said.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: why Democrats are pushing removing Donald Trump via the 25th Amendment, the latest on the nation’s deadliest shooting in more than two years in Louisiana and what to know about the 2026 NFL draft.
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Intense storms in Illinois fueled at least 15 tornadoes last week and fed rivers that will crest starting today
Beginning a week ago, what the local National Weather Service office called “an incredibly active stretch of weather” — including record-breaking rainfall and large hail — culminated Friday with more than a dozen tornadoes across northern and central Illinois. As water levels in area rivers kept rising over the weekend, the ripple effects of the severe storms are continuing into this week.
The Des Plaines River is expected to crest, or reach its highest peak, at 18 feet this morning before gradually receding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Prediction Service.
A 69-hour workday? City of Chicago paid head-scratching legal bills.
For one attorney’s work over a 24-hour stretch, a law firm billed the city of Chicago for 69 hours.
In invoices submitted from another city-hired firm, one staffer was logged working more than 24 hours a day 15 times. For another staffer, at least seven times.
The city paid them all.
Democrats know Trump probably won’t be removed via the 25th Amendment. Here’s why they’re pushing it anyway.
A long-shot idea Gov. JB Pritzker and others previously floated took on new life earlier this month when Illinois Democrats joined dozens of colleagues from across the nation in demanding President Donald Trump’s closest allies remove him for being “unable” to carry out his duties.
The Republican president’s recent behavior has raised doubts even among some staunch allies, yet invoking the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment to have Trump ousted — a process that would require Vice President JD Vance, a majority of Trump’s Cabinet and supermajorities in both chambers of the Republican-controlled Congress to support ousting Trump — has almost no chance of happening short of a health crisis.
Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey seeks distance from Trump, but MAGA shadow looms
After Darren Bailey last month won the Illinois Republican Party nomination for governor, he quickly tried to separate himself from President Donald Trump, declaring, “I am my own person” and that “there will be no outside influence dictating anything that we do here in Illinois.”
Yet less than two weeks later, there was Bailey, sitting across from Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump inside Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower. In an interview for her Fox News show, Bailey urged the president’s U.S. Justice Department or the FBI to come to Illinois to investigate “waste and fraud at massive levels” without offering any proof.
Man kills 8 children and shoots his wife and another woman in Louisiana
A man killed eight children, including seven of his own, and shot two women in an attack in a Shreveport, Louisiana, neighborhood that was the nation’s deadliest shooting in more than two years, authorities said.
Hundreds march in Pilsen, demand answers in unsolved fatal hit-and-run
Hundreds of protesters filled the streets of Pilsen yesterday afternoon, chanting for justice and answers in a fatal hit-and-run that has remained unsolved for nine months.
“When detectives ghost us and leave us with no answers, what do we do?” demonstrators shouted. “Stand up, fight back!”
Marcela Herrera was killed around 11:19 p.m. on July 21 while crossing the street at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Cullerton Street with her fiancé, 21-year-old Mauricio Leyva. Police say an unknown driver struck the couple and fled the scene, killing Herrera and seriously injuring Leyva.
In Chicago, robots are serving up food deliveries, as well as some mishaps
Food delivery robots are now ubiquitous in parts of Chicago, cruising down crowded sidewalks and scooching themselves through crosswalks. But sometimes the robots get themselves into pickles as they deliver tuna sandwiches and other fare to the city’s human denizens.
The lunch boxes on wheels have tumbled down subway stairs, crashed through bus shelters and even, in one case, learned to say “sorry.”
Trucks crashing into and blocking Vollmer Road viaduct is a decades-long, intractable problem
The viaduct that carries trains across Vollmer Road between Kedzie and Western avenues has been struck by over-height trucks enough times that the damage is visible on both sides.
The viaduct has a clearance of 11 feet, 9 inches, a fact displayed repeatedly on signs approaching the viaduct from both directions. But none of those deterrents have been sufficient to solve the problem of over-height trucks attempting to pass under the viaduct.
2026 NFL draft: What to know, including when the Chicago Bears pick and how to watch
The NFL draft is almost here. The three-day event begins Thursday night with the first round.
Check out everything Chicago Bears fans need to know ahead of the 2026 draft, including how to watch, where the Bears are picking, which local prospects to look out for and more.
- 12 prospects the Bears might consider with the No. 25 draft pick
- Could Illinois edge rusher Gabe Jacas be a sleeper in the draft?
Country artist Bryan Andrews is unapologetically outspoken about Trump — and some country fans don’t like it
An interview with country artist Bryan Andrews begins like it would with any rising star: First, a bit about his introduction to music—both his parents taught it in high school. Then some background about what he did before committing to country — he dropped out of the University of Central Missouri not once, but twice, after battling an addiction to alcohol and pain pills, and became a welder
He’s measured, introspective and — most of all — calm. That is, until the conversation turns to Donald Trump.
