Good afternoon, Chicago ✶
After a four-month trial featuring more than 60 witnesses, followed by nearly 65 hours of deliberations, a federal jury this morning found former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan guilty of bribery conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud in a partial verdict.
In today’s newsletter, we break down this major development in the trial of the man once known as “The Velvet Hammer,” for his understated, yet powerful leadership style as state House head.
Plus, we’re keeping it cool with reporting on an entrepreneur’s plan to bring homemade ice cream to a vacant storefront, the latest on the snowstorm and more community news you need to know below. 👇
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Jury finds Michael Madigan guilty of bribery conspiracy, wire fraud
Reporting by Jon Seidel, Tina Sfondeles, Dave McKinney and Matthew Hendrickson
Velvet Hammer nailed: A federal jury has found former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan guilty of bribery conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud in a partial verdict announced Wednesday morning.
Guilty of 10 counts: Jurors found Madigan guilty of 10 counts against him and not guilty of seven others. The jury reached no verdict on six other counts he faced, including a charge of racketeering conspiracy.
Key context: Madigan was found guilty of 10 counts related to Commonwealth Edison and for efforts to secure a state board seat for former 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis. He was found not guilty — or there was no verdict — on a racketeering conspiracy count related to an apartment project, a parking lot in Chinatown and AT&T legislation.
No verdict for McClain: Charged with Madigan was his longtime associate, lobbyist Michael McClain. The jury did not reach a verdict against any of the six counts against McClain.
The scene: Madigan watched as the verdict was brought to the judge. As it was read, he looked down, giving no expression as the counts were read, both guilty and not guilty, occasionally giving a slight nod. As he left the courtroom, he was met by his two daughters, Tiffany and Nicole, who had been seated in the front row. They touched his shoulder and followed him out.
The trial: The verdict came nearly 65 hours into jurors’ deliberations in the case against Madigan, who broke records as the longest-serving state House leader in the nation before a widening federal corruption probe forced him from office in 2021. The panel of eight women and four men listened to more than 60 witnesses and a full week of closing arguments.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Snowy outlook: We’ve got the latest updates on Wednesday afternoon’s snowstorm and its impact on your commute.
- Renewed gunshot-detection search: After Mayor Brandon Johnson made good on his campaign promise to deactivate the controversial ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system, he wavered in the face of opposition and directed his administration to start shopping for police technologies.
- Bears’ stadium hopes: When Bears’ matriarch Virginia McCaskey died at age 102 last week, she left behind a succession plan that is expected to lock in ownership with her family — and affect the team’s stadium hunt.
- City-owned grocery store plan scrapped: City officials say they’re considering opening public markets across the city, pivoting from their 2023 concept of creating a single municipal-owned grocery store.
- Pot sales reach all-time high: In 2024, the state reaped more than $2 billion in cannabis sales and nearly a half-billion dollars in sales tax.
- Calls to drop Sueños headliner: A petition is seeking to have Grupo Frontera removed from the festival lineup, citing their alleged support of President Donald Trump.
- Art Institute’s ‘transformative gift’: Two Chicago collectors have donated 200 paintings, 50 sculptures and nearly 2,000 drawings by some of the biggest names in French art — a 400-year-old scope that the museum calls “wholly unique outside of France.”
LOCAL BUSINESS BEAT 🍦
Local entrepreneur brings homemade ice cream to neglected stretch of North Lawndale
Reporting by Stefano Esposito
In a boarded-up North Lawndale three-flat — its walls grubby with graffiti, the grass strip just to the east littered with empty liquor bottles — Ida Nelson imagines gleaming glass cases, behind which “key lime vibe,” “peach cobbler,” “unicorn magic” and countless other ice cream flavors tempt and tantalize.
She plans to open Ida’s Artisan Ice Cream in early fall at 3935 W. Roosevelt Road.
Nelson, a single mother of five, began making her ice cream from scratch and selling it after she was laid off from her job in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She made her first batches in her North Lawndale kitchen, spread the word online and began selling ice cream out of her trunk. Since then, she has been getting orders for big-name vendors and events, estimating about 7,000 gallons of ice cream sold.
She now operates out of a rented kitchen on the Northwest Side — and dreams of opening her own shop in a long-neglected stretch of West Roosevelt Road in the neighborhood where she grew up.
“I’ve got the spirit of the hustler. I’ve got that resilience from North Lawndale, where I learned from very early that no one was coming to save me,” she said.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Bees and brilliant blooms brighten Portage Park viaduct
Reporting by Genevieve Bookwalter | For the Sun-Times
Neighborhood gardeners helped artist Cyd Smillie as she crafted a mural with honeycombs, bees and blooms in the viaduct at 4600 W. Irving Park Road in Portage Park.
The president of the nonprofit Arts Alive Chicago, Smillie, of Mayfair, has painted and overseen dozens of murals around Chicago. On a whim, she applied to do this one, which Portage Park business Novak Construction commissioned.
Then she got the assignment, and about 65 neighborhood residents joined her in the summer of 2022 to paint the whimsical flowers and protected pollinators on the south wall of the viaduct. The 10-foot-tall mural stretches 100 feet.
“It was really about color and beauty and the bees,” she says.
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Written by: Matt Moore
Editor: Dorothy Hernandez
Copy editor: Angie Myers