Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.
This afternoon will be sunny with a high near 86 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 66 degrees. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high near 91 degrees.
Top story
Ken Griffin pulling Citadel out of Chicago
Ken Griffin, the richest Illinoisan, is taking his family, his billions of dollars and his companies and leaving Chicago.
He made the announcement today in a memo to employees. Griffin said the headquarters of his Citadel hedge fund and his trading firm, Citadel Securities, will move to Miami, what he called a “vibrant, growing metropolis that embodies the American Dream.”
The move is expected to take several years. The firms have more than 1,000 employees in Chicago and while some are expected to remain, how many is unknown.
Griffin’s announcement said he has moved his family to Miami. He offered no parting shots at Chicago or Illinois but has been unsparing in his comments about surging downtown-area crime and about local tax and regulatory policies. He has made threats to leave for months.
He called Chicago a “remarkable home” for Citadel and he praised past support from political and business leaders. But he has said in other forums that what he believes to be a rise in crime has made it harder to attract top talent to Citadel, resulting in the firms adding to their headcounts in other cities while trimming it in Chicago.
The move comes on the heels of the Chicago region losing the corporate headquarters of Boeing and Caterpillar, a worrisome trend balanced slightly by news this week that one of three companies cereal and snacks maker Kellogg will split into, the largest, will be based in Chicago.
David Roeder has more on the announcement here.
More news you need
- Federal prosecutors in Chicago have called for a 15-year prison sentence for Jerry Harris, the former star of Netflix’s “Cheer,” who pleaded guilty earlier this year to child pornography and sex-crime charges involving multiple victims. His attorneys have asked for a lighter six-year prison sentence, writing that “the reality is that [Harris] is both victimizer and victim,” having also been sexually assaulted during his childhood.
- A man allegedly drove into a Chicago police sergeant directing traffic in Jackson Park and sped away while the officer held onto the hood of the car. The 21-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and has since claimed that he did not strike the sergeant — the sergeant climbed onto the hood before he sped off.
- The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said in a report released today it found that a confrontation last year with a Black woman and a Chicago police officer at North Avenue Beach was not racially motivated. But he still should be fired or suspended for excessive force, the police oversight agency said.
- During yesterday’s City Council meeting, members approved a pair of new ordinances: one to establish new cooling requirements for Chicago residential buildings, and another that grants benefits to surviving spouses of police officers and firefighters who have died by suicide. Fran Spielman has more on the approved ordinances here.
- After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Chicago Pride Parade triumphantly returns Sunday for what’s expected to be one of the city’s biggest gatherings of the year. If you’re planning to go, we’ve got a rundown of the parade route, forecast and other basics here.
A bright one
Pravda Records ringing in 38 years with music festival — and plenty of beer
When Kenn Goodman was enrolled as an art major at Northern Illinois University in 1984, he and roommate Rick Mosher figured it’d be a sound plan for them to form their own independent record label — expressly to put out vinyl discs and cassettes by their brash guitar-pop band, the Service.
Nearly four decades later, Pravda Records is among Chicago’s longest-running, most indefatigable indie imprints. Sporting a multi-artist, multi-genre talent roster and a voluminous library of titles, the label celebrates its 38th year of continuous music tomorrow through Saturday with PravdaFest, an outdoor celebration on the grounds of Skokie microbrewery Sketchbook Brewing Co.
“People are asking me, ‘What’s with this 38th?’” Goodman noted with a laugh. “Well, we’d planned to do the 35th — but it was sidelined by the pandemic. And we don’t want to wait till it’s 40. So, Pravda 38. We like the sound of that.
“[And] What’s a music fest without beer?” Goodman asked rhetorically, noting that Sketchbook will unveil its all-new brew, Pravda 38 — characterized as an “indie-rock lager” — at the anniversary festival.
Pravda’s longtime art director Sheila Sachs, who met Goodman at NIU in the mid-’80s and has worked with him ever since, crafted an intricate, organic design for the can label. It incorporates the names of the 37 artists who have recorded for Pravda.
Eight of those artists, spanning the label’s timeline, are set to perform at the festival; four different bands per night. Venerable punk-fueled brother act the Slugs, Pravda’s second signing after the Service, are reuniting for the occasion, as is the Service.
Moira McCormick has more with Goodman here.
From the press box
- The NBA Draft is tonight at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN. The Bulls have the 18th overall pick, and it’s an important test for the team’s management.
- The White Sox are calling up top prospect Lenyn Sosa, a source confirmed to our Daryl Van Schouwen. In the middle of a breakout season, Sosa hit .331/.384/.549 with Double-A Birmingham before his promotion.
- Cubs rookie reliever Ethan Roberts will undergo Tommy John surgery, the team announced today.
Your daily question ☕
What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received?
Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
Yesterday, we asked you: The Asian carp has a new name: Copi. What’s another food that should have its name changed?
Here’s what some of you said…
“Head cheese.” — Todd Eschman
“Liver and onions.” — Robert Baader
“Skirt steak.” — Mary Ann Matthews
“Sour cream.” — Seth Cooper
Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
