Good morning, Chicago.
For many students at Tilden High School, summer vacation began with their classmate’s memorial service.
Dozens of high schoolers, neighbors and friends gathered outside the Back of the Yards school on the last day of classes for Chicago Public Schools beneath a blinking message board that read “Peace Walk for Pedro.”
Pedro Ramírez, a junior at Tilden, had been shot and killed on his way to the school on May 26. At yesterday’s march and memorial, students and staff remembered Ramírez — a two-sport athlete who had recently made the school’s honor roll — as a leader on his volleyball and soccer teams and in the school’s hallways.
Many, like Tilden junior Liz Beidy, brought signs that called for justice to be served to the shooter, who was still at large as of Thursday morning. Police arrested a man in connection with the shooting within hours, but later released him without charges.
“It’s not fair how his life got taken away while coming to school,” the 16-year-old said. “And it doesn’t seem fair how the people are still out there, and my friend’s never going to come back, and they’re living a normal life. And his family is just here suffering.”
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including a look back at the places that shaped Obama before he became president, Paul Sullivan on Mayor Brandon Johnson admitting to leaving a Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game early and a review of ‘Keerah’.
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‘Broadview Six’ attorneys seek evidence of White House pressure to indict
Attorneys for the “Broadview Six” filed a motion yesterday seeking any communications potentially showing the White House put pressure on the U.S. Attorney’s Office to indict the controversial case, including from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and a top deputy.
Union alleges bad-faith bargaining at eight Illinois Prime Healthcare hospitals
A union for skilled maintenance workers is alleging that Prime Healthcare is bargaining in bad faith at eight of its Illinois hospitals — the latest union battle at the healthcare system.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399 filed 10 unfair labor practice charges against the Prime hospitals and MedSpace Services with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday.
Some Republican governors are rebranding June with conservative alternatives to Pride
June is widely recognized as Pride Month, but a handful of Republican governors have bestowed alternative titles that both supporters and opponents view as counterprogramming.
Without directly saying the idea was to replace Pride, the governors of Indiana and Tennessee rebranded June as Nuclear Family Month to celebrate units made up of “one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or fostered children.”
Tyco agrees to $10 million settlement with Wisconsin over PFAS water contamination
The manufacturer of a firefighting foam that contaminated the water supply in northeastern Wisconsin with PFAS chemicals for decades agreed to a $10 million settlement with the state, the governor and attorney general announced yesterday.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Barack Obama in Chicago
Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, returns to Chicago on June 19 for the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. It’s a long way from what brought Obama to live in Chicago for the first time: a $10,000-a-year job.
Obama had briefly worked for a New York financial consultant and then a consumer organization after his graduation from Columbia University in 1983. That’s when Obama spotted a help-wanted listing for Jerry Kellman’s Calumet Community Religious Conference, based on Chicago’s South Side. Kellman interviewed Obama at a coffee shop on New York’s Upper West Side and hired him on the spot.
Obama moved to Chicago in the mid-1980s to work for the Developing Communities Project, which was spun off from CCRC. He was expected to conduct 20 to 30 interviews per week with community members. Organizers called the process “learning who’s who in the zoo,” the Tribune reported in 2007. In layman’s terms, he was networking.
Later, when Obama was named the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review as a law student in 1990, he told the Tribune: “I’ll definitely be coming back to Chicago. Chicago’s a great town … an ideal laboratory.”
As he predicted, Chicago became the proving ground for Obama’s exit from the legal profession and entrance into politics in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here’s a look back at the places — and a few of the people — that shaped Obama before he became president.
Related:
- Obama Foundation offers first glance of Jackson Park campus: Here is what to know
- Photos: A look inside the Obama Presidential Center
Column: Leaving a Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game early could scar Brandon Johnson’s mayoral legacy
Leaving a Bears-Packers game before the end — whether it was the regular-season comeback or the wild-card playoff comeback dubbed “the greatest game in Bears history” — is a cardinal sin. How could anyone trust his decision-making again? Had he not watched the Bears? Does he even know who Caleb Williams is?
Stanley Cup Final: Carolina Hurricanes rally in the 3rd, then win Game 2 in OT to even the series
Seth Jarvis scored on a power play in overtime after Carolina erased a deficit in regulation only to give up a late tying goal, and the Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series.
Jarvis’ heroics 3:56 into OT came after a thrilling third period that included four goals being scored and another getting called off because of goaltender interference. Carolina became the first team since 1994 to win a Cup final game when trailing by multiple goals in the final 10 minutes.
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 1st career walk-off hit brings redemption as Chicago Cubs rally for a 7-6 victory
The Cubs pulled out the kind of win they might look back on in October as a turning point in their season. They rallied for four runs in the ninth to walk off the A’s in a 7-6 victory that ended an eight-game home losing streak.
Illinois Tree Climbing Championship is in Naperville this weekend
When someone thinks of tree climbing, it’s probably along the lines of a fun childhood pastime. But this competition is much more than just scaling tree limbs and enjoying the view from the canopy.
Tribune critic Hannah Edgar wins national music criticism award
Music critic Hannah Edgar, the Tribune’s contributing critic for classical music and jazz, has won the 2026 William Littler Prize for Music Criticism.
Review: In ‘Keerah’ at Definition Theatre, they’re young, smart and in love
Early on in “Keerah,” the very intriguing new Chicago play from Netta Walker that begins in a cafe on Milwaukee Avenue, it feels like you are watching a movie — a rom-com of tortured, hyperliterate souls inspired by “Normal People” and “Love Jones,” the latter still being one of my favorite Chicago films.
But after intermission, when there is quite the misdirect, you realize that there is an apt third comparison, the trilogy of “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight.”
