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.
Afternoon Edition
Chicago’s most important news of the day, delivered every weekday afternoon. Plus, a bonus issue on Saturdays that dives into the city’s storied history.
This afternoon will be rainy with a high near 51 degrees. Tonight will be cloudy with scattered showers and a low near 45. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 64. Sunday will be partly sunny with a high near 65.
Top story
In Chicago, advocates and providers brace for influx of patients if abortion rights are rolled back
Mujeres Latinas en Acción has often referred uninsured, immigrant women seeking abortions to Chicago-area services like the Chicago Abortion Fund and Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
But Neusa Gaytan, the senior vice president of programs, said she is unsure how women living in other states that are likely to soon ban abortions will make their way to Illinois. She sees the fight for abortion rights as intersecting with the fight for immigrant rights.
“If you are a woman of color, if you are Latina, and if you are low-income, how are you going to be able to travel to another state that can perform this service?” Gaytan said.
Advocates and providers are bracing for a surge of women seeking abortions in Illinois if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to abortion that Americans have experienced for decades. Because of a 2019 change in state law, abortion will remain legal in Illinois and the state will likely become a haven in the Midwest for those seeking abortions.
An estimated 26 states, including many surrounding Illinois, are likely to ban abortions if the Supreme Court reverses the historic 1973 case, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Advocates are worried about how people — particularly women of color and those with little money — will be able to travel to Illinois or another state where abortion services are available.
Elvia Malagón has more on what the future of abortion access could look like here.
More news you need
- Surveillance video shows a violent robbery early this morning in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in which a man was shot in the head while struggling with someone who stole his phone. The suspect and an accomplice drove away in a car, Ald. Brian Hopkins told constituents in a message.
- Bail was denied today for a teen couple accused of fatally shooting a man and firing shots at two 17-year-old girls — wounding one — in separate attacks in December on the Northwest Side. The 18- and 17-year-olds are each charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Victor Gutierrez, 20, in Irving Park on Dec 11, county prosecutors said.
- Face coverings will remain optional in Chicago’s indoor spaces, including public schools, even as rising cases mean there’s now a “medium risk” of COVID-19 transmission in the city under federal health guidelines. Chicago’s move from the CDC’s “low risk” category had been expected for a few weeks as infections spread over the past month, but the city has not reinstated its mask mandate.
- The Illinois Department of Public Health “did not identify and respond to the seriousness” of an outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home, the state’s auditor general concluded in a painstakingly detailed report released yesterday. The outbreak — which ultimately killed 36 veterans from November 2020 through January 2021 — was the largest in any of the state’s congregate care facilities.
- Friends, family, colleagues and fans are mourning the loss of Mike Hagerty, a Chicago kid who became a Second City improv star before embarking on a long career in film and television. Hagerty died yesterday at age 67.
- Certain state employees will have an additional two years to opt for cashing out all or part of their pensions early under an extension Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved yesterday. The pilot programs reduce the state’s long-term pension obligations and will save taxpayers money “for decades to come,” Pritzker said.
- S&P Global Ratings today upgraded its Illinois bond rating, with the state now boasting upgrades from all three Wall Street credit rating agencies. While the agency warned that “credit pressures remain,” it cited an improvement in Illinois’ financial flexibility, timely budget adoption and elimination of the bill backlog, as well as recent surplus revenues.
- Starbucks workers at a store in LaGrange have rejected union membership in a count of mailed ballots today supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. Last week, a store in Cary became the first in the Chicago area to unionize
- Illinois’ crow population has gone through drastic changes in the last 20 years. And the reason why isn’t necessarily what you might expect. It goes back to the early 2000s, when West Nile virus infections soared in Illinois in people and also among crows. Turns out that tracking the birds can help keep us safe.
A bright one
A train, a wagon and a canal: Lockport mural gives a nod to city’s transportation history
Roll in to Dellwood Tire and Auto Repair in Lockport, and you might find yourself staring down a train.
You aren’t in danger. It’s a 3-D mural painted on an outside wall of the tire store that features a train, a tractor, an old-fashioned pickup truck, an 18-wheeler and a horse-drawn ice wagon, with a plane overhead in the distance.
From a distance, though, the images look like they might leap out at you. For instance, the lamps painted on either side of the actual door to the store at 711 S. State St. seem to shine bright.
It’s the work of Robert Ryan.
He painted this slice of Americana as part of an art initiative called “unLOCK: Merging Art and Industry in Downtown Lockport,” which, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, commissioned 11 artists to create works focused on the city’s history.
Ryan, 58, says his aim was “to describe what I felt like is part of what made the history of Lockport great and what built it up, which was primarily transportation.”
Josephine Stratman has more on the mural here.
From the press box
- Annie Costabile on tonight’s Sky-Sparks season opener, which will see Candace Parker take on her former team for the first time in his career.
- Allie Quigley will be out for the game, however.
- Rick Morrissey on the White Sox’s underwhelming start to the 2022 season.
- Bears second-round pick Jaquan Brisker pushed back against former scout Chris Prescott’s characterization of him as “a Ph.D. — poor, hungry and desperate,” telling reporters that “it really just brushed off my shoulders.”
Your daily question ☕
How do you plan to celebrate the mother figure in your life this Mother’s Day?
Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
Yesterday, we asked you: What’s a sitcom from your childhood that you’d like to see rebooted?
Here’s what some of you said…
“Maybe one that was short-lived that not many remember, like ‘Homeboys from Outer Space’ or ‘Grown Ups.’ Experiment on those to your heart’s desire.” — Chris Owens
“The Honeymooners.” — Chris Onorato
“‘Facts of Life’ or ‘Different Strokes.’ Loved them growing up!” — John Boog Smith
“Three’s Company.” — Chuck Colquitt III
“Good Times.” — Jacalyn Horne Johnson
“Home Improvement.” — Erick Ratzer
“Married With Children.” — Bill Buckland
“Reboot ‘Welcome Back, Kotter.’ And while you’re at it, bring back ‘Moonlighting.’ — Mark McIntosh
“Definitely ‘Family Ties.’ My father and I watched it every week. He loved Michael J. Fox‘s character.” — Sandra J. Morris-Cessna
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