Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: New work requirements for federal food assistance benefits put pressure on Chicago-area elders.
🗞️ Plus: The rich history of Chicago’s oldest Black church, why hailstones that fell Tuesday were so big and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: Northwestern falls to Purdue, 81-68; Lakers topple Bulls, 142-130; Blackhawks rally past the Mammoth, 3-2.
🕛: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌬️
Dangerously strong winds with gusts up to 60 mph, possible showers and a high near 45.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔍
Older Chicagoans are at high risk of losing SNAP as new work rules kick in
By Elvia Malagón
Bootstrapping: Older adults are at risk of losing SNAP food benefits after work requirements were expanded to include 55- to 64-year-olds, part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax overhaul. In Chicago, only 35% of households that included adults in this age group were working at least 20 hours per week, according to a Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ analysis of data from the U.S. Census 2024 American Community Survey.
The stakes: The new requirements call for people to work or volunteer 80 hours a month, which translates to an average four hours per weekday. The rules also expanded to include veterans and parents whose youngest child is 14 years or older. If SNAP recipients don’t meet the rules or get an exemption by May, they will begin losing benefits.
Uphill battles: Older people who have been out of the workforce might find it harder to compete for jobs, especially because of continuing ageism, advocates say. This group also often spends time looking after relatives, making it harder to meet the 80 hours each month. In response, community groups across Chicago are expanding volunteer opportunities.
EDUCATION 📚
CTU plans to join May 1 ‘no school, no work’ day of action and wants classes canceled
By Emmanuel Camarillo
Hands-on learning: The Chicago Teachers Union intends to launch what amounts to a one-day strike May 1, and is asking the mayor and school board for support so students can miss class to participate. CTU wants members and students to take part in “age-appropriate” civic education, labor history programs, voter registration, know-your-rights training, rallies and marches.
Main messages: Union leaders’ reasons to participate include to demand the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency get “out of our cities” and to “tax the rich to support our schools and vital services.” They also say public education is facing attacks from “MAGA politicians” who support policies of both President Trump and “corporate interests.”
A precedent: In 2016, teachers staged a one-day strike in support of higher wages and more state funding. That action led CPS to cancel school for the day and to set up contingency sites where parents who needed to work could drop off their children. CPS filed a charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board alleging the strike was illegal.
HISTORY ⛪️
How Quinn Chapel AME put its faith in action
By Nicole Jeanine Johnson
Community heart: By the 1840s, free Blacks flocked to Chicago to steer clear of slavery. Some of them started Quinn Chapel AME, the city’s first Black church, and its physical building served as a beacon for freedom seekers. As the law closed free Blacks off from public society, the church became the center of the community. It was where people learned to read, engaged in debate club, and had women’s Bible study and singing classes.
Underground Railroad station: Those who led Quinn Chapel’s emancipation work were among the city’s Black elite — leaders in the business community and in politics. But the veil of class, wealth and mixed ancestry didn’t fool church members into thinking they couldn’t be returned to slavery or taken into bondage for the first time. The chapel’s location along the Chicago River, with close proximity to Lake Michigan, made it a strategic station on the Underground Railroad.
Living history: Inside the church is a massive organ purchased from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition German pavilion. Members at the time held the first ever June Rose benefit concert to pay for the instrument. Since then, Quinn Chapel has hosted the concerts for more than 130 years. “It’s kind of a homecoming for everybody,” Senior Pastor Troy Venning said.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Record shattered: Here’s why hail from Tuesday’s storm yielded individual sky ice in excess of 1 pound and 6 inches.
- Business proposal: Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) wants to freeze the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers, capped at 24% of the city’s minimum wage.
- PAC-poll fever: Sun-Times politics reporters have put together a voter’s guide to the confusing world of super PACs influencing 2026 Illinois primary races.
- Broadview 4?: Federal prosecutors dropped conspiracy charges against two of six people who protested outside a suburban immigration holding facility last fall.
- 5 breweries shut: National declines in drinking, tariffs on aluminum and an oversaturated market have pushed some Chicago-area beer producers into a corner.
- Earworms and orchestras: Meet Michael Bearden, the Chicago native returning as music director for the Academy Awards on Sunday.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚽️🏀
- Super Bowl dreams: The Bears are trying to acquire championship experience.
- Unsteady footing: President Trump suggested the Iranian men’s national soccer team could not be kept safe at this year’s World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S.
- Back in town: Big Ten Network analyst Bruce Weber delights in his longtime ties to Chicago and the Midwest.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue:
Like the vibe on Friday the 13th
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Sixth grader wins CPS spelling bee
By Elleiana Green
Less studying, better results: That was Seraj Zerhouni’s strategy at the Chicago Public Schools Spelling Bee Championship on Thursday.
Despite months of studying difficult words, Seraj lost last year’s citywide spelling bee by misspelling “Tiffany.” The LaSalle II Magnet School sixth grader returned this year with a simpler approach — prepare a little less and study easier words.
It worked. Seraj advanced steadily through the early rounds, then won the championship in Round 18, outlasting 48 other CPS students.
In May, he will compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.
“It feels like redemption,” Seraj said. “I was pretty disappointed last year that I didn’t get so far, and now I’m, like, determined to get far, and then I got far.”
Seraj took the title after correctly spelling “logothete,” which means an administrator in the Byzantine Empire.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Do you have a favorite local craft beer? Tell us about it.
Reply to this email (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
Yesterday, we asked you: What kind of museum is missing from Chicago? What should it cover?
Here’s some of what you said…
“A ‘Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’ … oh wait.”
“A Chicago Blues Museum, preferably at the former Chess Records location on South Michigan Avenue.”
“It needs the DePaul Art Museum, which [DePaul University] is closing.”
“An offshoot or partner of the National Comedy Center … specifically for Chicago comedy.”
“Museum of Unknowns, highlighting nonfamous, everyday people doing big or important things in the city. Rotate selected individuals monthly!”
“Halsted Street old businesses from the ‘60s and ‘70s would be perfect for a history museum!”
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
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Written and curated by: Esther Bergdahl
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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