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 mostly sunny with a high near 77 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 50. Tomorrow will be increasingly cloudy with a high near 66.
Top story
Lightfoot sets earlier citywide weekend curfew
A day after announcing that unaccompanied minors would be banned from Millennium Park on weekend evenings, Mayor Lori Lightfoot took the next step and rolled back the citywide weekend curfew to 10 p.m. from the current 11 p.m.
At a Monday morning news conference, Lightfoot said those restrictions will remain in place “for the foreseeable future.” Asked to define a successful outcome she said it would be young people enjoying the city safely with respect for others.
“No, we don’t want to arrest children. But if we have to, we will, if they’re breaking the law,” the mayor said.
“My interest is not in rounding up young people and throwing them in the back of a wagon. It’s in enforcing community norms,” Lightfoot added. Her “expectation” is that young people “will abide by” those community norms when reminded of them.
Lightfoot said the “trauma exacerbated by the pandemic is real” for youth and Chicago needs a “sea change” in their behavior and in parental oversight of them.
What she wants to emphasize, Lightfoot added, is “not the consequences or the heavy hammer” but the sense of responsibility for parents and young people.
Lightfoot had announced the new Millennium Park rule on Sunday, following another night of springtime chaos downtown.
The mayor announced that measure after a frenetic stretch from Saturday evening into early Sunday that started with crowds of young people congregating in the Loop — and ended with a 16-year-old boy fatally shot near “The Bean,” two men wounded in a separate attack nearby and 26 juveniles and five adults arrested.
Fran Spielman has more on the city’s response to the chaos of last weekend here.
More news you need
- The once-a-decade political power struggle triggered by the need to redraw Chicago’s ward boundaries to accommodate the U.S. Census is over — at least for the time being. Fran Spielman has more on the new ward map, which City Council approved by a 43-to-7 vote today.
- At 16, Seandell Holliday, had big plans ahead of him, hoping to one provide for his family and pursue a career in music. “If I make it to 21,” he added in a list of goals he drew up before he was fatally shot near “The Bean” during a chaotic Saturday night downtown. David Struett has more on Holliday.
- Three women who were found dead at a senior living facility in Rogers Park on Saturday have been identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. All three women were found unresponsive over a 12-hour span not long after residents at the facility had complained about excessive heat and a lack of air conditioning.
- McDonald’s said today that it has started the process of selling its Russian business, making it the latest major Western corporation to exit Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. The Chicago-based fast-food giant said its business in Russia “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.”
A bright one
After guest spots with some of music’s biggest names, Lucius singers roll out songs of their own
Even if you haven’t heard of Lucius, you’ve definitely heard them. The main talents in the indie pop act, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, have been critical darlings since their self-released debut, “Songs from the Bromley House,” came out in 2009, followed by their label debut “Wildewoman” in 2013.
But as of late, the two power vocalists (who first met as students at Berklee College of Music) also have been go-to collaborators for a who’s who of topline music colleagues.
Laessig and Wolfe’s perfectly harmonized voices take the spotlight on The War On Drugs’ 2021 hit “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”; they once dominated the stage with Roger Waters across the span of his 2017-2018 international tour, and the two appeared on several tracks on Ozzy Osbourne’s 2020 “Ordinary Man” album. Not to mention co-written works or guest spots with Chicago’s own Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy as well as Sheryl Crow and Harry Styles (the latter even causing a kerfuffle after he failed to credit them appropriately on “Treat People With Kindness”).
“It does kind of feel like one leads to the next leads to the next. Maybe one person hears of us through one song, and then we meet somebody through another experience. I don’t know how we’ve been gifted all of that,” said Jess Wolfe in a recent conversation while in the midst of a club tour to promote Lucius’ new album “Second Nature” (out now on Mom + Pop Records), also featuring drummer Dan Molad and guitarist Peter Lalish.
“I hope it would have something to do with them liking what we do [in Lucius], but I do feel especially lucky that we’ve been chosen to have a presence on so many types of artist’s projects. It’s a great joy for us, and we get to see music in a new light every time we collaborate with a different mind.”
Read more about Lucius’ rise to prominence ahead of a headlining show at the Metro later this week.
From the press box
- Right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto will make his season debut for the White Sox tonight in Kansas City.
- The Cubs, unlike some teams, didn’t use PitchCom in spring-training games. But a little over a month into the season, the covert communication system has won over most of their staff, Maddie Lee writes.
- Mike Clark on how Kenwood’s football program keeps churning out the kind of talent that’s drawing Power 5 coaches to the South Side.
Your daily question ☕
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On Friday, we asked you: What can the city do to make biking better in Chicago? Here’s what some of you said...
“Bike trails completely separate from streets and sidewalks. Only way to keep pedestrians, bikers, and drivers safe and unrestricted.” — Beverly Brown
“Biker riders also need to obey the traffic laws. It’s crazy how many careless bicyclists there are out there. Weaving in and out of traffic, not obeying signals. Yes, people in vehicles also need to do a better job as well.” — Jenny Morales
“Separated bike lanes. They can easily be installed at a fraction of the costs of new roads, and allow for a more diverse population of cyclists to move safely within the city.” — Christy Frazier
“Create curbed bike lanes that create a barrier between the bike lanes and car lanes. It can be done. Other cities already have this feature.” — Daniel N. Janich
“Keep motorized scooters and too-fast e-bikes off the bike trails. Almost run down on the lakefront this morning by a guy going 35 mph+ on a scooter.” — Alan Gilbert
“Educate drivers about the benefits to them when others bicycle. The more people on bikes there are, the more traffic clears up for those stuck in cars.” — Phil Pace
“Enforce bike lane violations for people parking and driving in them, build separated bike lanes and connect bike paths rather than forcing cyclists to get between different marked bike lanes via arterial streets with no bike infrastructure at all.” — Braden Herbert
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