Good morning, Chicago.
The two teens huddled around their science teacher, eyes wide as he held a tiny solar panel beneath a fluorescent lamp. As light glinted off the device, a miniature, solar-powered fan whirred to life.
“This mimics the heat of the sun, and we can use it to generate electricity,” said Jamiu Sokoya, a physics and environmental science teacher at Carver Military Academy.
The demonstration is just a small-scale preview of the project the students will tackle this summer.
Juniors LaShawn Jones, 16, and Sebastian Rojas, 17, have been selected for Carver’s first green jobs pathway program — a paid, two-month internship focused on installing solar panels at their high school. Alongside four other students, they’ll help design and build renewable energy systems on campus.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Kate Armanini.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: how Chicagoans responded to a Suffolk/Tribune poll about the Bears stadium move, what’s next for WBBM Newsradio and Chicago’s Tomato Man talks about the impacts of erratic spring temperatures on his beloved heirlooms.
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Iran fires on 3 ships in the Strait of Hormuz, complicating efforts to resume US-Iran talks
Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz today, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the United States and Iran together for talks to end the war.
Suffolk/Tribune poll: Chicagoans want to see Bears move to Arlington Heights — not Indiana
When Brad DeFabo Akin was growing up in Arlington Heights, the first videocassette he owned as a child was “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” the Chicago Bears’ kitschy song-and-dance classic from 1985.
So if the team were to move to the northwest suburb, it would feel for him like they were staying at home. If they moved to Hammond, Indiana, however, he would likely hold a grudge against them.
Illinois House Democrats push Bears stadium tax deal as Republicans seek property tax relief
House Democrats met for hours behind closed doors Tuesday, working to advance a proposal that would bring the Chicago Bears to Arlington Heights.
The plan would allow the charter NFL franchise to make special payments to taxing bodies in the northwest suburbs — known as Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT — rather than paying regular property taxes. A bill requiring businesses with large-scale development plans to enter into such agreements for at least 20 years passed through the Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee in February, but has stalled since then for lack of sufficient support within the House’s Democratic supermajority.
This Little Village native helped Artemis II go around the moon. Now he wants to see the stars for himself.
In the fourth grade, Joseph Gonzalez built a rocket. Made out of a 2-liter soda bottle and powered by water pressure, the contraption wasn’t quite ready for the atmosphere. But that experiment in Gonzalez’s Little Village elementary school class made him realize he had aspirations far, far beyond his Southwest Side neighborhood.
More than two decades later, Gonzalez just helped take astronauts around the moon. And still, he wants to go further.
Planned Parenthood endorses independent Mayra Macías in race to replace retiring US Rep. Jesús ‘Chuy’ García
An independent candidate seeking to challenge retiring U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s handpicked successor in November picked up key backing Wednesday, with the political arm of the abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood announcing its support for Mayra Macías in what is expected to be a crowded general election race.
WBBM Newsradio still up in the air about filling the void post-CBS
For decades, WBBM-AM 780, Chicago’s all-news station, has ushered in each hour like clockwork with a five-note musical sounder, followed by network news from CBS Radio.
Those familiar notes will sound for the last time next month after CBS pulls the plug on its nearly century-old radio network. While plans for the top-of-the-hour newscast remain up in the air, WBBM station management is confident they will successfully fill the five-minute void with another national network or local programming.
Column: Chicago Bears will rely on ‘the silent tape’ to find competitive players in the NFL draft
Assistant general manager Jeff King has been with the Bears long enough — initially hired as a scouting intern in 2015 — that he surely has received plenty of historical nuggets from board member Pat McCaskey, writes Brad Biggs.
One of the more recent ones: The cornerstone NFL franchise has been a part of every draft. The 91st NFL draft begins Thursday night.
- 3 things we learned from Bears, including confidence in options at No. 25 and a T.J. Edwards update
- Photos: Bears annouce Brian Piccolo Award winners
Courtney Vandersloot says Chicago Sky — ‘under a microscope’ with Angel Reese — can return to winning identity
Courtney Vandersloot didn’t think it would be this hard to sit on the sidelines.
After suffering a torn ACL in a June 7 game last season, Vandersloot is still completing a lengthy rehabilitation process. She won’t be available for the May 9 season opener and has not set a target date for a return. But even from the sidelines, Vandersloot clearly commands the team’s center of gravity in training camp.
Column: Grandsons give a famous tavern matriarch a place to call her own
Far from the neighborhood where they once played hosts to millions of thirsty people, Mary Jo and Butch McGuire stared from the wall of a new Lincoln Avenue saloon when Tribune columnist Rick Kogan walked in one recent early evening.
Chicago’s Tomato Man on the impacts of erratic spring temperatures on his beloved heirlooms
One thing Bob Zeni will never get behind is a grocery store tomato — suspiciously bright red and plump for the middle of winter and deceptively flavorless year round. Season after season he’s made it his mission to help wean people off of those “tasteless travesties.”For 26 years, Zeni has been obsessively gardening heirloom tomatoes. What first began as a backyard project has turned him into one of Chicagoland’s leading experts on how to grow the fruit in its unique array of reds, purples, yellows and stripes.
