Daywatch: A path to resentencing for more than 1,200 inmates in Illinois
Good morning, Chicago.
Christopher Carter was 20 when he took part in the murder, armed robbery and kidnapping of a man whose body he helped dispose of on Chicago's West Side in March 2001.
He was the youngest of three suspects charged in the crime. He argued that his role was comparatively limited and that he didn't commit the actual killing, but at trial testified that he participated in the murder because he was afraid of the two older men, according to court records. All three were convicted, and Carter was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
More than 20 years into his incarceration, criminal justice reform advocates say Carter is among roughly 1,200 people in prison in Illinois who, under legislation being considered in Springfield, could be eligible for resentencing by a judge who takes into consideration their age and maturity level at the time the crimes were committed.
The proposal would apply to people in prison for crimes they committed when they were under 21. It marks one of the latest efforts by lawmakers to allow retroactive sentencing reforms that would give long-term prisoners, some essentially locked away for life, a chance at freedom.
Read the full story from the Tribune's Jeremy Gorner.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: how the city will handle 'teen takeovers' returning downtown, State Sen. Emil Jones III going on trial today on bribery charges and Chicago's connection to 'The Great Gatsby.'
The $265 million tech bill: How a plan to streamline Illinois computer systems has cost more than $250 million
Cook County and state officials approved the cascade of taxpayer dollars even as the company struggled with software crashes, bungled rollouts and allegations of incompetence, while Tyler pointed the finger back at government officials for various missteps, an investigation by Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune found.
Shutdown of regional Head Start offices creates confusion, but feds say funding will continue
The Trump administration's decision to close a regional Head Start office in Chicago this week has raised questions about how the program, which serves more than 28,000 children and low-income families in Illinois, will continue to operate in coming weeks and months.
Judge: Feds can't intervene in Haymarket lawsuit to bring rehab center to Itasca
A federal judge has determined that Itasca won't have to face the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by behavioral health provider Haymarket Center after the western suburb rejected its proposal for a drug treatment facility.
Thousands rally, march through Loop for national 'Hands Off!' protest
Thousands rallied and marched around downtown Saturday afternoon to take part in a national day of action to say 'hands off' to President Donald Trump's administration.
So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states. In Chicago, a flood of people swarmed Daley Plaza, with hundreds filling the surrounding streets by noon. The crowd then began an hourlong march making a loop around to State Street and then back to Daley Plaza.
As teens 'take over' downtown once again, Chicago faces a choice
When Khalil Cotton was growing up on Grand Boulevard on the city's South Side, he and his friends often struggled to find places to hang out outside of school. A hoop with a crate on a pole was a replacement for a basketball court because there wasn't one nearby, he said.
Hundreds of young adults like Cotton have attended what are now commonly called 'teen takeovers' over the past few years in the city's downtown neighborhoods. Videos of these gatherings — including two notable ones just last month, which ended with a 15-year-old boy sustaining a graze wound and a tourist being shot as she walked back to a hotel with her son — have circulated across social media, generating debate in the City Council and neighborhood groups alike as summer approaches.
Anointed by powerful father, state Sen. Emil Jones III heads to trial on bribery charges
Chicago Democrat Emil Jones III was made a state senator in 2008 in a classic Illinois way, on a path paved by his powerful father that left little to chance. Now, Jones is rolling the dice with a federal jury that could send him packing in equally time-honored Illinois fashion: as a convicted felon.
Jones, 46, whose father, Emil Jones Jr., led the state Senate for years before orchestrating having his son replace him, goes on trial today on bribery charges alleging he agreed to help a red-light camera company alter legislation in exchange for $5,000 and a job for his legislative intern.
Cook County state's attorney's office to expand pilot that allows police to directly file some gun charges
The Cook County state's attorney's office announced Friday that it is expanding a pilot program allowing Chicago police officers to bypass prosecutors and directly file charges in some low-level felony gun cases, a move the office says will ease backlogs and free up police officers and assistant state's attorneys for higher-priority work.
Column: It might be a bumpy season, but Chicago Cubs fans should just relax and enjoy the ride
Is new closer Ryan Pressly the next Mitch Williams or a Hector Neris' clone? Will the Cubs re-sign Kyle Tucker, or should fans just enjoy his presence for now and worry about that come November? And if the torpedo bats really work, why don't they make every Cubs hitter use one instead of just Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner?
Those were but a few of the questions Paul Sullivan heard at Wrigley on day one of the home season as Cubs fans returned to their home away from home.
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame along with Sky great Sylvia Fowles
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan was a first-ballot selection for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, one of eight individuals named to its 2025 class Saturday. His selection was predicated on a heralded career as a collegiate coach for leading Florida to consecutive national championships in 2006 and 2007. He remains one of only three men's coaches to accomplish the feat.
Former Chicago Sky star Sylvia Fowles also was named to this year's Hall class as a first-ballot selection. The Sky drafted Fowles with the No. 2 pick in 2008 after she led LSU to four consecutive Final Four appearances. She was a three-time All-Star and won two Defensive Player of the Year awards with the Sky before being traded in 2015 to the Minnesota Lynx, with whom she won two WNBA championships and an MVP trophy in 2017.
Chicago's connection to 'The Great Gatsby' as Fitzgerald's novel turns 100
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' It was destined to be the definitive literary monument of the Roaring '20s, a decade of fortunes made and lost on Wall Street. Prohibition gave booze the lure of the illicit.
But the novel's debut on April 10, 1925, was a dud.
Aurora Mayor-elect John Laesch says City of Lights Center project 'pretty much dead'
Aurora Mayor-elect John Laesch told The Beacon-News in a recent interview that he has no intention of pursuing the City of Lights Center project.
The 4,000-seat theater and 600-person event space called the City of Lights Center proposed for downtown Aurora, which Laesch previously spoke out against and said Thursday as a project is 'pretty much dead' under his incoming administration, would have cost the city between $100 million and $120 million, according to past reporting.
Three upcoming, monumental dance events, all with deep ties to Chicago, are on a collision course with your calendar. But it is possible to see the Joffrey Ballet, Twyla Tharp and Parsons Dance next weekend. And you should, writes Lauren Warnecke.
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2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: Why Illinois' borders are unlikely to change
Good morning, Chicago. The nearly three dozen Illinois counties where a majority of voters in recent years have expressed their desire to leave the Land of Lincoln won't be joining their neighbor to the east anytime soon — or probably ever — regardless of any recommendation from a bistate commission Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed off on last month to study the issue. While the measure creating the commission sailed through the Republican-dominated Indiana statehouse on its way to the GOP governor's desk, a companion proposal from one of Illinois' most conservative state lawmakers went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly before it adjourned its spring session. The disparate responses in Indianapolis and Springfield to the proposed creation of an Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission, described by supporters as a conversation starter but decried by critics as a pointless political stunt, are emblematic of the yawning political divide between the states despite their deep geographic and economic ties. Read the full story from the Tribune's Dan Petrella. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what to expect from the heat and humidity today, why the debate over what went wrong at Lincoln Yards continues and the best wine destinations in Evanston. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History The world grappled yesterday with the United States inserting itself into Israel's war by attacking Iranian nuclear sites, an operation that raised urgent questions about what remained of Tehran's nuclear program and how its weakened military might respond. Experts warned that worldwide efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons by peaceful means would be at stake in the days ahead, while fears of a wider regional conflict loomed large. The price of oil rose as financial markets reacted. The multiday stretch of oppressive heat and humid conditions will continue today, with at least one decades-old record broken over the weekend, experts said. Chicago's low temperature Saturday night was a stifling 78 degrees, breaking the June 21 record for minimum temperature. The low was 4 degrees higher than the previous record set in 1923, according to the National Weather Service. Illinois set the tax on vaping products at 15% of the wholesale price about six years ago. The first increase since then kicks in July 1, with the rate going up to 45%. Most tobacco products other than cigarettes, including cigars and chewing tobacco, will also be taxed at 45% of the wholesale price, up from a 36% levy that's been in place for more than a decade. The war of words over what went wrong with developer Sterling Bay's grand vision for its Lincoln Yards development on the North Side continues, even while the city waits to see what will happen with the sprawling site. As Gabriela crossed the stage at her kindergarten graduation in Chicago, she scanned the audience, desperately searching for a familiar face. But her mother was nowhere to be found. Just a week earlier, on June 4, her mother, Wendy Sarai Pineda, 39, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside an office in downtown Chicago during what was supposed to be a routine check-in, while Gabriela was at school. The little girl doesn't understand why her mother vanished and had hoped her mother would be at her graduation, said Camerino Gomez, Pineda's fiance. A new Chicago clinic is providing abortions to patients up to roughly 34 weeks into pregnancy — the only standalone clinic in the Midwest to offer often-controversial terminations in the third trimester and among only a handful that do so nationwide. Jey McCreight underwent hormone replacement therapy and top surgery in their mid-30s to transition into a transmasculine person. They said the medical treatment helped them 'live life to the fullest.' When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors on Wednesday, McCreight said they were unsurprised, but sad and angry nonetheless. McCreight, 37, joined about 200 others who braved the Saturday afternoon heat to protest the court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti. Closure is something we all crave, whether it's the perfect ending to a favorite TV series or a resolution of a real-life relationship. The closure of the long-running Sammy Sosa saga felt like a little of both, part 'Breaking Bad' finale and part end of a nearly three-decade story Paul Sullivan has covered off and on at the Tribune. Now that Sosa is back at Wrigley Field, the story is complete. The air downtown smells of grilled onions, wafting from the flat tops of three Route 66 restaurants that have helped give the small town of El Reno, Oklahoma, about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City, a distinct culinary identity. The governor fired off a message to the White House, outraged that the president had deployed soldiers to an American city. 'I protest against this, and ask the immediate withdrawal of the Federal troops from active duty in this State,' he wrote. It was July 1894. The governor was John Peter Altgeld of Illinois, and the president was Grover Cleveland. The two Democrats were arguing about Cleveland's decision to send the U.S. Army into Chicago during the Pullman strike. George Karzas announced on Instagram Thursday that Gale Street Inn, a neighborhood staple in operation since 1963, was permanently closed, a troubling trend among local restaurants, industry professionals say. He cited staffing shortages as the primary reason for the abrupt closure. 'Hiring and retaining quality staff has proven too tough for too long,' he wrote. 'We are tired of sucking, we have standards you know. But overworking our existing crew is not the answer. There are simply too many of you and not enough of us.' With so much attention paid to Chicago's vibrant wine scene, suburban Evanston may not come to mind as a destination for wine lovers. After all, this lakeside community — home to Northwestern University — was the epicenter of the American temperance movement. Rooted firmly in its Methodist origins, Evanston remained a dry community from the 1850s until 1972, four decades past the repeal of Prohibition.
Chicago Tribune
4 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: ‘The Sandberg Game' rocks Wrigley Field
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 23, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) Chicago's history with hosting Democratic and Republican conventions dates back to 18601888: Frederick Douglass spoke at the Republican National Convention in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. He received one vote from Kentucky in the fourth ballot — making him the first Black person nominated for president. 1895: A Chicago Colts game against Cleveland was interrupted after the third inning so the entire team could be arrested for violating laws banning baseball games on Sunday. While a West Side Grounds crowd of 10,000 fans waited, the players were marched into the clubhouse where they signed $100 bail bonds. They then returned to the field to finish a 13-4 victory. 1930: Future Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Hack Wilson hit for the cycle against the Philadelphia Phillies. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Chicago Cubs who have hit for the cycle Wilson drove in a single-season record of 191 runs during the 1930 season, hit his 22nd home run of the year into right field in the first inning, then picked up a triple, double and two singles. 1960: Ground was broken on a 51-acre site in Elk Grove Village, which was just 5 miles away from O'Hare International Airport, for United Airlines' headquarters and training schools. United remained at the location until its offices were moved in 2009 to Willis Tower. In August 2022, CloudHQ began demolition of the former United Airlines corporate headquarters in Mount Prospect, with plans to build a $2.5 billion data center campus. 1975: Chicago City Council passed 'Burke's Law,' an ordinance proposed by former 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke that outlawed nudity in massage parlors. The nickname was inspired by a popular television detective show from that time. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Pelé, Hamm, Beckham, Rapinoe, Messi and more. When soccer's big names came to play1976: The Chicago Sting beat the New York Cosmos, in front of 28,000 fans. It was soccer star Pelé's last match at Soldier Field. 1984: 'The Sandberg Game.' Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg hit a pair of late-inning, game-tying home runs off St. Louis Cardinals closer Bruce Sutter in the Cubs' 12-11, 11-inning win before a crowd of 38,079 at Wrigley Field. It signaled his rise to stardom — setting the second baseman on a course that would earn him the National League Most Valuable Player Award. The wild, comeback win gave notice to the rest of America that the 1984 Cubs were for real despite a 39-year World Series drought and not a single championship since 1908. That game ignited an unforgettable summer run that ended with a postseason collapse in San Diego, only one game shy of the World Series. What to know about the Chicago Bears' possible move to Arlington Heights — or a domed stadium on the lakefront2000: Churchill Downs Inc. bought Arlington Park for a reported $71 million. Arlington closed its gates on Sept. 25, 2021. The Bears finalized a deal to buy the site in February 2023. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
In 1894 Pullman strike, Illinois' governor fought president's decision to bring in National Guard
The governor fired off a message to the White House, outraged that the president had deployed soldiers to an American city. 'I protest against this, and ask the immediate withdrawal of the Federal troops from active duty in this State,' he wrote. It was July 1894. The governor was John Peter Altgeld of Illinois, and the president was Grover Cleveland. The two Democrats were arguing about Cleveland's decision to send the U.S. Army into Chicago during the Pullman strike. Illinois was 'able to take care of itself,' Altgeld wrote, telling Cleveland that the deployment 'insults the people of this State by imputing to them an inability to govern themselves, or an unwillingness to enforce the law.' Their dispute has echoes today, with President Donald Trump ordering the California National Guard and U.S. Marines sent to help deal with protests in Los Angeles. This time, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has led a chorus of objections to the president's move. In 1894, the progressive Altgeld was the loudest voice of protest. Altgeld, who'd emigrated from Germany as a toddler, was a Cook County judge before winning election as governor in 1892. The following year, he faced harsh criticism when he pardoned three alleged anarchists for their supposed roles in the 1886 Haymarket bombing, which killed seven police officers and several civilians during a labor demonstration west of the Loop. Altgeld said the imprisoned men were innocent, but the Tribune and other newspapers labeled him as an anarchist and apologist for murder. At the time, Chicago was reveling in the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, but the city soon fell into an economic depression. That prompted tycoon George Pullman to slash salaries at his railcar factory, even as he continued charging workers the same rent for living in his company's Far South Side complex. Pullman's desperate employees went on strike in May 1894. The conflict expanded in late June, when the American Railway Union refused to work on trains containing Pullman's luxury sleeping cars — a boycott that paralyzed railroads across the country. Two federal judges in Chicago, William Allen Woods and Peter S. Grosscup, issued an injunction July 2, ordering the union to stop disrupting interstate commerce and postal shipments. U.S. Marshal John W. Arnold delivered the message to a crowd of 2,000 strikers in Blue Island. Arriving on a train, he stood in the mail car's doorway and read the injunction. 'I command you in the name of the president of the United States to disperse and go to your homes,' he said. According to the Tribune, Arnold was greeted with 'howls, hooting, curses, and scornful laughter.' People shouted, 'To hell with the government! To hell with the courts!' And then they 'wantonly violated the court's order' by pushing over a boxcar onto the tracks. Arnold telegraphed U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney. 'I am unable to disperse the mob, clear the tracks, or arrest the men … and believe that no force less than the regular troops of the United States can procure the passage of the mail trains, or enforce the orders of the courts,' he wrote. Cleveland ordered soldiers from Fort Sheridan, a base in Lake County, into Chicago. He later cited a statute authorizing the president to deploy armed forces if 'unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the United States' made it 'impracticable' to enforce laws through 'the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.' A crowd cheered when troops arrived in Chicago early on the morning of the Fourth of July. The Tribune reported that the soldiers were there to teach union 'dictator' Eugene Debs and his followers a lesson — 'that the law of the land was made to be obeyed and not violated by a rabble of anarchistic rioters.' But Altgeld said troops weren't needed. 'Very little actual violence has been committed,' he told Cleveland. 'At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not by reason of obstructions, but because they cannot get men to operate their trains.' Cleveland replied that he was acting 'in strict accordance with the Constitution and laws of the United States.' Altgeld sent a second telegram, challenging the president's use of the military to enforce laws. Not even 'the autocrat of Russia' has that much power, Altgeld said. Recalling his reaction to Altgeld's missives, Cleveland later said, 'I confess that my patience was somewhat strained.' A Tribune editorial scoffed at Altgeld's arguments: 'This lying, hypocritical, demagogical, sniveling Governor of Illinois does not want the law enforced. He is a sympathizer with riot, with violence, with lawlessness, and with anarchy.' An Army officer told the White House that Chicago's 'people seem to feel easier since arrival of troops.' But Altgeld told Cleveland that the soldiers' presence was an 'irritant' that 'aroused the indignation' of many. Police Superintendent Michael Brennan reported: 'The workingmen had heard of the arrival of the federal troops and were incensed.' Mobs soon knocked over or burned hundreds of freight cars, drunkenly shouting insults at soldiers. 'MOBS DEFY ALL LAW — Make Night Hideous with a Reign of Torch and Riot,' a Tribune headline declared. In the midst of the turmoil, buildings from the 1893 World's Fair went up in flames, attracting a huge crowd of spectators. Arson was suspected. Most of the rioters weren't striking railway workers, according to Brennan. Rather, they were 'hoodlums, the vicious element and half-grown boys' who 'were ready for mischief of any kind,' he wrote. More federal troops arrived. And despite Altgeld's opposition to the federal deployment, he sent 4,000 members of the Illinois National Guard to help the Chicago police establish order. Brennan praised the way his own police handled the situation, writing: 'They used their clubs freely, vigorously and effectively; there were many cracked heads and sore sports where the policeman's club fell, but no human life was taken.' According to Brennan, the most troublesome law enforcement officers were 5,000 men deputized by the U.S. marshal. 'A large number of them were toughs, thieves and ex-convicts,' he wrote. 'They were dangerous to the lives of the citizens on account of their careless use of pistols. They fired into the crowd of bystanders when there was no disturbance and no reason for shooting. Innocent men and women were killed by these shots.' U.S. Army officials were reluctant to allow their 1,900 soldiers in Chicago to fire at rioters — or to take on the role of police officers. 'Punishment belongs not to the troops, but to the courts of justice,' they wrote in an order outlining rules of engagement. Reporting for Harper's Weekly, artist Frederic Remington described soldiers angry at being held back from attacking 'the malodorous crowd of anarchist foreign trash.' Remington called Chicago 'a seething mass of smells, stale beer, and bad language.' But he noted that the city's 'decent people' welcomed the soldiers. The strike's deadliest episode happened July 7 at 49th and Loomis streets, where several thousand people jeered and threw rocks at the Illinois National Guard. The state troops charged with bayonets and fired several volleys, killing at least four and wounding 20. A Tribune headline called it 'A DAY OF BLOOD.' The Army focused on getting the trains to run again, with soldiers riding shotgun in trains as they carried mail and much needed shipments of food. On July 8, U.S. soldiers escorting a train fired at crowds in Hammond, killing an innocent bystander. 'I would like to know by what authority United States troops come in here and shoot our citizens without the slightest warning,' Hammond Mayor Patrick Reilley said. By the time the strike was over in mid-July — with the union defeated and the soldiers gone — the official local death toll was 12, though some historians say more than 30 died. Altgeld lost his bid for reelection in 1896. He died in 1902 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery, where the monument on his grave features some of his words, including a portion of his message to Grover Cleveland: 'This is a government of law, and not a government by the caprice of an individual.'
