Good afternoon! It’s Wednesday, and my WBEZ colleagues and Jam Productions are bringing the creators of the primary podcast produced in jail to The Vic this summer time. Right here’s what else you’ll want to know right now.
1. The primary three months of 2025 had the fewest robberies in Chicago of any quarter in many years
After a three-year surge, town’s theft numbers have plunged to historic lows, my colleague Chip Mitchell stories.
From September 2021 to June 2024, nearly each month noticed a year-over-year theft improve, a WBEZ information evaluation discovered. Robberies peaked at 1,213 in August 2023.
In July of final 12 months, nonetheless, the numbers began to plummet. Each month since then has had a double-digit drop in robberies from the earlier 12 months. The primary three months of 2025 had the fewest robberies of any quarter in many years.
“You may see the influence of COVID on crime,” stated Wesley G. Skogan, an emeritus Northwestern College political scientist who analyzes Chicago’s numbers. “Housebreaking went means down however road theft went means up.”
Skogan stated that these days society has been therapeutic. “Faculties are open. Violence interruption is extra widespread than it was earlier than. Youth and leisure providers are again. The police are working extra cheap hours and their exercise — site visitors stops, arrests, rushing tickets — has been creeping again up towards regular.” [WBEZ]
From barbershops to bakeries, enterprise homeowners are anxious about how they’ll maintain themselves within the coming months, Esther Yoon-Ji Kang stories for WBEZ.
At Mad Mike’s Barber Store within the Little Village neighborhood, Ismael Acuña Jaimez stated the 145% levy on Chinese language items will have an effect on the price of clippers, blades and different tools, most of which is made in China.
He added that being a small enterprise means there’s not numerous additional money to spend on stocking up for the long run, nor does he have the assistance of an accountant who can present projections and recommendation.
And he can’t simply elevate costs both, because the clientele in Little Village is basically immigrants and low-income households.
For Elisa Knotts, proprietor of Elisa’s Cake By the #Pound, a customized cake enterprise she runs out of her dwelling, the tariffs are simply the most recent in a sequence of hits which have included the Trump administration’s reining in of variety and inclusion applications. That transfer impacts the budgets of organizations seeking to prioritize patronizing minority-owned companies. [WBEZ]
3. Visa terminations are inflicting panic for Illinois college students and educators
The Trump administration’s transfer to terminate the authorized immigration standing of lots of of worldwide college students is leaving Illinois educators scrambling to seek out methods to assist. However they don’t know which of their college students is likely to be focused subsequent and methods to defend them, my colleague Lisa Kurian Philip stories.
In lots of instances, federal officers are erasing college students’ immigration standing with out notifying faculty officers — and with out informing college students why the terminations occurred.
“I feel I’ve been clear with the U.S. authorities,” stated a current UIC grasp’s diploma pupil whose visa was revoked with out a possibility to reply or enchantment. “I’d like the identical transparency after I’m getting kicked out.” [WBEZ]
4. A Chicago man was deported to an El Salvadoran jail, his household says
His household has no concept methods to attain Yeison Rodrigo Jaimes-Rincon once more after recognizing him in a video of a U.S. official touring the jail, my colleague Adriana Cardona-Maguigad stories.
YD, a 33-year-old Venezuelan migrant residing in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, had no concept her associate had been deported to the utmost safety Terrorism Confinement Heart till she noticed a listing printed by CBS Information with the names of 238 Venezuelans who had reportedly been flown there by the Trump administration.
Whereas looking on-line for extra info on Jaimes-Rincon’s whereabouts, YD got here throughout a video, shared broadly on social media, of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem touring the ability. [WBEZ]
5. Portillo’s is testing breakfast objects at 5 Chicago-area places
The brand new menu features a chocolate cake doughnut, chocolate cake iced espresso and three sorts of breakfast sandwiches.
Clients have been asking for morning hours and breakfast objects for a very long time, stated Sara Wirth, Portillo’s director of public relations and communications. The chain started testing the brand new menu objects a couple of 12 months in the past.
Breakfast is offered from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at places within the South Loop, Niles, Shorewood, Elmhurst and Tinley Park. [WBEZ]
Right here’s what else is going on
- A decide discovered the Trump administration will be held in felony contempt over deportation flights. [NPR]
- President Trump stated his administration is actively exploring a proposal to detain U.S. residents and ship them to prisons in El Salvador. [NPR]
- An hourslong Spotify outage disrupted tens of hundreds of customers. [AP]
- Scientists traced a butterfly migration route that’s thousands and thousands of years previous. [NPR]
Oh, and yet one more factor …
People music turned in style with youth within the Nineteen Fifties, ’60s and ’70s. As alcohol-free third areas, coffeehouses have been key to that development, WBEZ’s Curious Metropolis stories.
“You had an entire viewers of youthful individuals who had by no means heard this music earlier than, and it sounded way more uncooked and actual than what was taking place on the radio,” stated Mark Guarino, writer of Nation and Midwestern: Chicago and the Historical past of Nation Music and the People Revival. “It actually was form of an underground subculture.”
Most of the folks performers who turned family names — like Steve Goodman, Michael Smith and Fred Holstein — obtained their first gigs at these coffeehouses. They typically started as music followers themselves, seeing different folkies play and becoming a member of this burgeoning neighborhood of Chicago. [WBEZ]
Inform me one thing good …
What are your standout reminiscences of celebrating springtime holidays, whether or not it’s Easter, Passover, Mom’s Day or any of the others?
Peter writes:
“Easter Sunday 1964 was a blizzard, snow and excessive winds, and my little brother Micheal’s christening. A intercalary year child, which he’s by no means gotten over, plus the storm on Easter, ought to have been an omen. Truly he turned out very properly.”
Be happy to e-mail me, and your response could also be included within the e-newsletter this week.
