Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Nearly six months after Mayor Brandon Johnson ordered Chicago police to investigate alleged abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it’s unclear what the decree has accomplished or what needs to be done to enforce it.
🗞️ Plus: Reports of sexual assault persist at Country Thunder music festival, a “first of its kind” quadruple-organ transplant and more news you need to know.
📧 Subscribe: Get our morning newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
- Today will be sunny with a high near 97 and heat index values as high as 102.
- An air quality alert is in effect until at least early Wednesday. Air quality could worsen Thursday and Friday as wildfire smoke is expected to reach the region, according to the Illinois Department of Health.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Mayor Johnson’s ICE crackdown plan faces City Council scrutiny
Reporting by Mariah Woelfel
Crackdown plan: On Jan. 31, Mayor Brandon Johnson inked an “ICE on Notice” executive order directing Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents and potentially seek charges, as the city reeled from the federal government’s Operation Midway Blitz, launched last fall. Johnson’s order also requires police officers to refer felony matters to Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke “at the direction of the Mayor’s Office.” O’Neill Burke slammed that piece as “wholly inappropriate.”
Council scrutiny: Police were directed to form new procedures within 30 days to implement the mayor’s order. Nearly five months after that deadline, it’s unclear what the decree has accomplished or what more needs to be done to enforce it. Those questions will be the topic of a City Council hearing Friday as immigration enforcement intensifies in the area. The Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights is holding the hearing.
More from City Hall: The mayor’s plan to seize control over the Chicago Housing Authority board, which is led by mayoral challenger Matthew Brewer, was thwarted Tuesday after another City Council revolt. Johnson had introduced to a housing committee three CHA board appointments.
THE WATCHDOGS ✶
At Country Thunder music festival, reports of sexual assaults continue
Reporting by Robert Herguth
Assaults alleged: At the popular Country Thunder Music festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, near the Illinois border, reports have persisted over the last decade that young women and underage attendees are being assaulted by men on site.
No comment: Sex crimes have been so worrisome at Country Thunder that, more than a decade ago, local nurses launched an awareness campaign that included a booth at the event. As organizers prepare for another festival running Thursday through Sunday, they won’t discuss the assault allegations with the Sun-Times.
HEALTHCARE 🩺
Woman with cystic fibrosis gets quadruple-organ transplant
Reporting by Cindy Hernandez
‘First of its kind’: After undergoing a lifesaving surgery, Elizabeth Wehrle, 36, had a quadruple-organ transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital — the first such procedure performed in the United States on someone who’d already received a lung transplant, Wehrle and her doctors said Tuesday.
Medical history: At 11, Wehrle was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and she had a double-lung transplant in 2017, but her health declined this year. “We couldn’t just say that nothing can be done,” one of her doctors said, describing their decision to transplant two other lungs, a liver and a kidney. Wehrle said Tuesday: “Because of their [donors’] selfless gift, I get to go home this week, hug my son and continue living a life I wasn’t sure I’d get to have.”
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Intestinal infection outbreak: The state health department has confirmed 216 cases of the diarrhea-causing illness cyclosporiasis. Of those, 18 people have been hospitalized, officials said. Infection often comes after eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Judge pushes for settlement in hospital squabble: Negotiations to reopen Oak Park’s West Suburban Medical Center drag on in Cook County court as a judge grows increasingly frustrated with both sides of the dispute.
- Board candidates removed: The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners cut five candidates in the upcoming race for the city’s first fully elected school board, including two sitting board members.
- Remembering Mary Morello: A Libertyville native, activist and mother of Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello, Ms. Morello died Sunday at age 102.
- Feds’ disaster loans: The U.S. Small Business Administration plans to establish Disaster Loan Outreach Centers for people affected by three rounds of storms that ravaged the Chicago area last month.
- Mood Fabrics expands: The New York City fabric retailer made popular by “Project Runway” is opening a Loop showroom for customers with an eye for design.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- GLP-1s: As new GLP-1 medications hit the market, questions remain about the weight loss drugs’ side effects, health equity and the cultural impact. We’ll dig in with a panel of health experts.
- Bean pie symbolism: The caramel colored tart has long been a symbol of Black American liberation, but today, they’re harder to find. We’ll hear from people who grew up eating the dessert at mosques and a baker working to keep the tasty tradition alive.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- Summer on a shoestring: Savannah Ray Hugueley of the Chicago Reader discusses her favorite ways to enjoy the summer on a budget. Callers weigh in.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚾🏀
- Dream team: White Sox standouts Munetaka Murakami, Miguel Vargas and Tristan Peters reveled in their All-Star moment Tuesday in Philadelphia.
- Vargas caps AL victory: Vargas’ eighth-inning home run during Tuesday’s All-Star game helped lead the American League to a 4-0 win over the National League.
- Levine apologizes: Bruce Levine, reporter for the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network and The Score, appeared to be trying to message a member of the Cubs’ coaching staff — but instead posted on X.
- Sky’s hope: DiJonai Carrington is almost ready to play, but she can’t save the Sky alone, writes Alissa Hirsh.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 6A: Instrument decorated and donated by Chicago Plays
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Pop-up to permanent: Friends open Greek frozen yogurt spot and fans line up
By Ambar Colón
In January, best friends Nathalie Del Valle and Maya Matta got a big idea to open a Greek frozen yogurt shop. Two days later, they had ordered their first test machine, a soft-serve ice cream maker, Matta said.
After months of selling froyo out of their apartment and later hosting sold-out pop-ups all around the city, the best friends this week officially opened the first brick-and-mortar home for their independent froyo brand, Mikono. It debuted in Pilsen on Monday to a long line of enthusiastic followers that wrapped around the building.
They’re operating out of the kitchen at the Latina Sweat Project, 949 W. 16th St., a yoga studio also offering classes in Pilates and dance. Mikono’s residency at the studio is open 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 p.m.-9 p.m. on weekends while the duo works on their permanent storefront, set to open in Lincoln Park later this fall.
Del Valle and Matta, both 23, have dipped into their savings and upgraded their equipment. They made a nearly $15,000 investment into an ice cream machine sourced from New Zealand. So far, their gamble has been worth the risk.
“When we started, we would bring people into our apartment … and all these girls would knock on our door, and we’d just serve them the froyo,” Del Valle said. “It was just a really beautiful community that we started to build. We never expected it to turn into this.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What’s the best way to enjoy summer in Chicago on a budget?
Email us your answer to this question (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
On Tuesday, we asked you: What’s your favorite iconic Chicago sign?
Here’s some of what you said…
“Trim and Tidy Cleaners in Jefferson Park. The sign hasn’t changed in 50 years.” — Jon Larson
“The Town & Country Liquor Mart neon sign in Brighton Park.” — Jaime Duque
“The Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge signs and their infamous typography (see ‘The Blues Brothers’).” — Marty Regan
“My favorite Chicago sign was the Magikist sign along the Kennedy [Expressway]. As a kid, when I saw that sign, I had some idea of how much longer till the family station wagon arrived downtown or arrived home from a trip downtown … I always sat in the third row, which faced backwards, and got to stare at the lips for a long time as they filled in with vertical lines of bright, red lights over and over.” — Loretta Namovic
“The Heart O’ Chicago Motel neon sign at Ridge and Peterson [avenues]. It graced the cover of Nick Freeman’s ‘Good Old Neon: Signs You’re in Chicago’ book. My wife and I would sometimes spend nights during the pandemic driving to the different neon signs in the book. A few years later, we ended up moving about 10 blocks from the Heart O’ Chicago sign.” — Jordan Mainzer
Thanks for reading the Sun-Times Morning Edition!
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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