Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: In Chicago’s tipped minimum wage divide, labor activists want better workers’ pay, but some servers say they earn more with tips and that the city’s ordinance hurts them.
🗞️ Plus: Shooting was an alleged assassination near the United Center, “No Kings” protests return and more.
📝 Keeping score: The Blackhawks were bested by the Devils, 5-3; the Cubs lost to the Nationals, 6-3; the White Sox fell to the Brewers, 9-7.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Mostly sunny with a high near 76 and a chance of evening thunderstorms.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Johnson’s veto to prevent freeze of tipped minimum wage divides restaurant industry
By Amy Yee
Tipped off?: Some restaurant owners and servers say Chicago’s hotly debated law to increase the minimum wage for tipped employees harms workers and the industry. Supporters of the ordinance want better pay and conditions for workers.
Key context: Chicago’s law went into effect in 2024 to increase the tipped minimum wage to parity with the city’s standard minimum wage over five years. A recent City Council vote sought to freeze tipped workers’ hourly pay, before Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed the plan last week.
For it: “The recent backdoor effort to pause its implementation is not only harmful to tipped workers — especially Black, Brown and women workers — but also undermines the democratic process,” said Raeghn Draper, organizer with the Chicago Hospitality Accountability & Advocacy Database Project and a bartender at Consignment Lounge near Logan Square.
Against it: Gina Barge-Farmer, owner of Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop, spoke with the Sun-Times about the impact on her business. The controversy about the tipped minimum wage is “a misunderstanding of math,” she said. “We’re on the hook for paying the minimum wage, irrespective.” Shanell Oliver, a server at Bronzeville Winery, told the Sun-Times she earns much more with tips. “No server is working to make the hourly wage,” she said.
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU 🗣️
What do you think of freezing the minimum wage for tipped workers?
Respondto this email (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
WATCHDOGS ✶
Top Mormon leader knew his brother was an alleged child molester
By Robert Herguth
No notification: A top Mormon church leader who has said he learned in or about 2020 that his brother may have molested children many years earlier — possibly involving a congregation in the Chicago region — didn’t notify police or child welfare authorities.
Inaction explained: With the accusers grown up, D. Todd Christofferson “respected the adult victims’ wishes not to involve law enforcement at that time,” a spokesman for the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told the Chicago Sun-Times.
At issue: Christofferson and other church officials won’t say why his brother, Wade Christofferson, was allowed to apparently stay an active member and leader at a Latter-day Saints community in Ohio after it was known that he may have abused children at some point.
CHICAGO PROTESTS 👑
‘No Kings’ rally draws thousands to Grant Park
By Erica Thompson, Leigh Giangreco, Mary Norkol, Somer Van Benton and Mohammad Samra
Shame of thrones?: For the third time in less than a year, thousands of protesters across the Chicago area joined nationwide marches Saturday to make their voices heard regarding President Donald Trump and his policies. Downtown, protesters rallied in Grant Park before marching toward the Loop, holding signs reading, “Abolish ICE,” “No Kings Since 1776” and other slogans, and ended peacefully without any major incidents at 4:30 p.m.
Key context: An escalating conflict with Iran that has led to inflated gas prices and a lingering government shutdown that prompted the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at various airports are among recent developments drawing widespread criticism that brought protesters to the streets as part of the latest “No Kings” demonstrations. On Friday at O’Hare International Airport, protesters decried ICE’s presence.
Broadview arrests: Most demonstrations were peaceful without incident. In suburban Broadview, near the ICE facility that became a flashpoint for anti-ICE protests during Operation Midway Blitz last fall, seven people who attempted to stand in the street were arrested, police said.
WATCH: SATURDAY’S ‘NO KINGS’ RALLY ▶️
PUBLIC SAFETY ✶
- Alleged assassination: Jerry Lewis, a 67-year-old businessman involved in the massive development project near the United Center, was assassinated in a shooting outside his offices just blocks from the arena, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
- Convicted killer denied parole: Members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board denied parole for Patricia Columbo, who was convicted of killing her parents and younger brother nearly 50 years ago. Columbo was sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison for the 1976 murders.
- Murder suspect hearing: Jose Medina, accused of fatally shooting Loyola University freshman Sheridan Gorman, appeared in court virtually Friday because officials said he was being treated for tuberculosis. His attorney, who said Medina has a developmental disability, asked the judge to keep him in jail for fear of ICE detainment.
- Sentenced after threats: Samuel Cundari, a former DuPage County prosecutor, was sentenced earlier this month to home confinement and supervised release after pleading guilty to suggesting online that a bomb could go off at a downstate LGBTQ+ festival.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Fallen firefighter’s funeral: The private funeral for Michael Altman, the Chicago firefighter killed in a blaze earlier this month, was rescheduled for Tuesday. Last week’s services were canceled after his wife went into labor.
- Health care promise: One owner of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park says he is working on getting the hospital back open after it was abruptly closed by his business partner last week.
- Lawsuit dropped: Chicago Housing Authority Board Commissioner Debra Parker dropped her lawsuit Friday against the authority and interim CHA leader Matthew Brewer, ending her fight to keep her housing voucher.
MONEY DESK 💰
County property taxes have grown twice as fast as inflation over the last 30 years, study shows
By Nicole Jeanine Johnson and Violet Miller
Treasurer’s report: Property taxes outpaced inflation and grew “well above wage growth” over the last 30 years, shooting up nearly 182%, according to a new report from the Cook County Treasurer’s office.
The numbers: The county’s property tax levy has increased from $6.8 billion in 1995 to $19.2 billion in 2024, twice the rate of inflation, according to county Treasurer Maria Pappas. If it had remained on track with inflation, per her office’s calculations, that figure would be closer to $10.1 billion. Predominantly Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides were hit hardest.
How we got here: Pappas blames loopholes in the state Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, designed to limit tax increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less. But “local officials took advantage of that law’s loopholes to enact tax increases that substantially exceeded that limit,” and 94 of the county’s 135 municipalities aren’t bound by the law, the report says.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏀📺⚾🏈
- Illinois vs. UConn: Just when Illinois fans still walking on air were sure the team’s Final Four opponent would be Duke, UConn staged an Elite Eight comeback Sunday.
- Taylor McGregor’s journey: McGregor talks to the Sun-Times about beginning her seventh season at Marquee Sports Network last week, recently working her first NBA game for ESPN and expanding a national profile that added the College Football Playoff.
- Cub’s cash: With a six-year, $141-million deal, Nico Hoerner officially becomes the next Cub to cash in.
- NFL’s yearly meetup: The Bears’ decisionmakers have gathered at the NFL Annual Meetings, where they’ll try to make progress on several issues. Here’s what to watch for.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 1D: “___: Rhythms in Color” (new Matisse exhibit at the Art Institute)
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
The standout costumes of C2E2 2026
By Ashlee Rezin
Cosplayers descended on McCormick Place this weekend for the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, better known as C2E2 Chicago.
Sun-Times photojournalist Ashlee Rezin captured some of the best costumes from the convention’s first day.
See more via the button below.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
Hat tip: Sun-Times’ Joel Carlson for today’s subject line, which you’ll find on the front page of today’s newspaper — on newsstands and online now.
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