Good morning, Chicago.
Illinois lawmakers went into overtime and worked into the early morning today to send Gov. JB Pritzker a nearly $56 billion election-year state spending plan that was balanced, in part, with an anticipated windfall of sales tax revenue resulting from soaring gas prices.
Pritzker and fellow Democrats are building their November general election campaigns around the issue of affordability, blaming Republican President Donald Trump and his allies for cuts to social programs and for rising prices on necessities — most notably gasoline, which has jumped from an average of about $2.91 per gallon in Chicago to $4.82 since the Iran war began in late February.
The final piece of the budget package was approved about 3 a.m. on a 37-21 vote in the Senate and about 4 a.m. in the House on a 76-39 party-line vote. In the Senate, three downstate and suburban Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the spending measure.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Olivia Olander.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what to know about landmark transit funding legislation taking effect today, Mayor Brandon Johnson predicts a revival of faith in Chicago following his Vatican trip and 10 pop-up events to eat and drink at in Chicago this month.
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Illinois legislature adjourns for the summer without resolution to Chicago Bears stadium issue
The Illinois House adjourned early today without taking up a last-ditch Senate bill that would have allowed Arlington Heights or Chicago to form a public-private ownership deal with the Chicago Bears and given the team a path to build a new stadium without paying property taxes on the facility.
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, in adjourning the chamber’s spring session, said conversations on the Bears stadium issue would continue over the summer. Welch’s comments came shortly after the Senate’s 37-17 vote, which occurred nearly four hours after the legislature’s scheduled midnight adjournment.
Illinois lawmakers pass statewide school cellphone ban, handing win to Gov. JB Pritzker
After falling short last year, Illinois lawmakers gave final approval yesterday to a measure that would prohibit students from using cellphones throughout the day at most public and charter schools.
The measure, approved in the state House in April, next heads to the desk of Gov. JB Pritzker, who made the issue a top priority during the past two spring legislative sessions.
Landmark transit funding legislation takes effect today. Here’s what commuters can expect.
It’s full steam ahead on the Chicago area’s regional transit overhaul.
Landmark legislation intended to prevent service cuts on the CTA, Metra and Pace goes into effect today. The transit law is expected to raise about $1.5 billion for public transit annually.
As plastics clog the Great Lakes, industry presses to make more and downplays dangers, Tribune analysis finds
More than 8 billion tons of plastic waste clog the planet, a gobsmacking figure that continues to grow unabated.
If stacked within Chicago’s Millennium Park, plastic dumped into the environment since the middle of the last century would rise beyond the edge of outer space.
Tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles, are found on the most remote, seemingly pristine shorelines, including National Park Service beaches around the Great Lakes. In Lake Michigan, the chief source of drinking water for Chicago and its suburbs, the pellets spread from tributaries and pour out of dozens of sewage treatment plants ringing the lake.
ICE releases some immigrants without a way back home. These volunteers are waiting to help.
After being released from nine months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, Jesus Ramirez Ramos needed help.
The clothes he wore when he was arrested stank from spending the better part of a year in storage, unwashed. ICE lost his cellphone at the Michigan jail where he was held, cutting off important contacts. He was arrested and detained far from his Salina, Kansas, home, and had no easy way back to the nation’s heartland.
Mayor Brandon Johnson predicts revival of faith in Chicago following Vatican trip
Before Brandon Johnson was mayor of Chicago, he was a pastor’s kid. That was a label he once again applied following his much-hyped meeting with Pope Leo XIV last week, one that he has played up to fortify how constituents connect his spiritual roots with his progressive politics.
As American religious affiliation of all types has been declining over the decades, Johnson and other allies say a “revival” of faith is overdue in Chicago, and Leo could be the catalyst. They also point to churches as important ways to get out the vote.
- What Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson brought Pope Leo XIV, including a White Sox hat and sanctuary city pin
- Trump attacks Pope Leo XIV for meeting with Mayor Brandon Johnson
Feds detail tangled web of ties in ‘Greek’ gambling ring
After he was indicted as a minor player in an alleged illegal gambling ring based in Northwest Indiana, a judge barred Andrew Nguyen, like most of the 21 other defendants, from gambling as a condition of his release.
Now, to make the case he should be allowed to resume his career as a video poker player, his lawyer disclosed in a court filing this week that Nguyen was also an extortion victim in the same case.
The revelation is part of an early picture starting to emerge of a tangled web of bookies, bettors and alleged, if ineffective, enforcers.
‘That really breaks my heart’: Lincoln Park High School to sunset Arabic classes, prompting outcry from community
For four years, Julian Sadah, 18, sat in a classroom at Lincoln Park High School learning Arabic. What began as learning shapes and colors turned into a deep love for and fascination with the language, something Sadah, who graduated last week, said was formative in his high school years.
Now, Sadah and his classmates are among the last to take Arabic at the high school, which has offered the class for years. The language program will no longer be offered to incoming students, a decision that Lincoln Park High School leadership said is tied to budget constraints and consistently low enrollment. The move has prompted backlash from some in the school community who say the program creates opportunity and inclusion.
Column: Chicago Bears are bullish on Austin Booker, who has added mass in an effort to ‘take that jump’
Austin Booker didn’t tune in to the NFL draft last month when there was considerable interest in the possibility the Bears would draft a defensive end, writes Brad Biggs.
When the draft ended without the team adding an edge rusher, Booker emerged as one of the winners on the existing roster. But the fact the team’s draft board didn’t align with what management viewed as a prime opportunity to bolster the position didn’t alter Booker’s thinking as he continued preparing for the season and adding to his frame.
Now-forgotten ‘I Am an American Day’ didn’t welcome all immigrants equally
In 1943, more than 130,000 Chicagoans packed into Soldier Field to see Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore and Paulette Goddard, military bands, the Griff Williams orchestra, high-up generals and American bomber pilots in celebration of the true stars of the show: immigrants taking the oath of citizenship.
This was “I Am an American Day,” a now-forgotten holiday that celebrated newly nationalized citizens and new voters every May before eventually being swallowed by Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
10 pop-up events to eat and drink at in Chicago this month serving BBQ, smoked desserts and more
Summery weather is here, offering plenty of opportunities for dining and drinking outside. Find some new favorite spots with a Malt Row stroll or Lincoln Park restaurant crawl, or enjoy some barbecue fare on the patio at Sportsman’s Club’s weekly series. Chicago hosts the James Beard Foundation awards this month, so chefs and bartenders from around the country will be popping up to show off their craft. You can also find ways to help feed others or learn more about what makes Chicago’s restaurant scene so special. Whatever you’re craving, check out 10 dining events happening in June.
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