Good afternoon! It’s Tuesday, and Chicagoans have a chance to assist title the Shedd Aquarium’s latest otter. Right here’s what else it’s essential know at the moment.
1. Gov. JB Pritzker is ready to announce his marketing campaign for a 3rd time period Thursday
The governor will make his third consecutive statewide marketing campaign official with reelection marketing campaign kickoff occasions in Chicago and Springfield, sources instructed the Chicago Solar-Occasions. Invites have been reportedly circulating to supporters early within the week.
As my colleague Mitchell Armentrout writes, it’s nonetheless unknown whom Pritzker will faucet to affix him on the highest of the ticket as lieutenant governor. The present second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, is vying for the U.S. Senate seat that Sen. Dick Durbin will surrender subsequent 12 months.
Representatives for Pritzker’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The achievement Pritzker and his Democratic allies within the Basic Meeting most frequently level to is the state’s steadiness sheet. After a yearslong price range deadlock introduced many state social providers to a grinding halt, Pritzker and Democratic supermajorities muscled by ever-increasing budgets that rebuilt a “wet day” fund for the state, serving to notch 9 credit standing upgrades in the course of the governor’s tenure.
Pritzker has additionally positioned himself as a nationwide voice of progressive outrage in opposition to President Donald Trump.
Illinois doesn’t have time period limits for governors. Former Gov. Richard Oglesby served three nonconsecutive phrases from the 1860s into the Eighties, and former Gov. Jim Thompson was elected to 4 phrases from 1977-91. [Chicago Sun-Times]
With the college district dealing with a $529 million price range deficit, the Chicago Academics Union president says the town wants to face as much as President Donald Trump’s assaults on public training by supporting its colleges, my WBEZ colleague Sarah Karp experiences.
“The price range and its selections manifest into actual affect that our younger individuals get to expertise,” Davis Gates mentioned in an look on the Metropolis Membership of Chicago yesterday. “So selections concerning the price range left college students at Julian Excessive Faculty in 2025 with no math trainer for practically a 12 months, Clemente highschool with no chemistry trainer. … These aren’t occurrences. These are selections.”
Davis Gates’ feedback got here simply days after former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s tenure got here to an finish. Martinez was fired partially due to his rebuke of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s suggestion that CPS take out a mortgage to cowl final 12 months’s deficit and a controversial municipal pension fee.
However CPS’ newest price range deficit is even greater than final 12 months, and Martinez didn’t depart the college district with a viable plan for addressing it. At this level, probably the most viable various to borrowing can be making vital cuts to varsities. [WBEZ]
A complete of 60 opioid overdoses have been reported Friday and Saturday — together with greater than 37 on Saturday alone — triggering the town’s spike alert system, my colleague Cindy Hernandez experiences for the Chicago Solar-Occasions.
When surges happen, public well being officers and group companions canvass affected neighborhoods to cross out naloxone, a medicine used to quickly reverse the consequences of an opioid overdose. Additionally they present info on opioid use and join individuals to therapy if they need it.
“We all the time see a seasonal improve within the variety of overdoses in Chicago, in addition to many different locations on this nation and around the globe,” mentioned Jenny Hua, medical director of behavioral well being and interim deputy commissioner on the Chicago Division of Public Well being. “So definitely warmth has a fairly shut correlation when it comes to the quantity of overdose actions.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
4. Chicago indie filmmakers say the Illinois Movie Workplace is inflicting them complications
A gaggle of 61 impartial filmmakers and manufacturing corporations mentioned the state company has been favoring massive Hollywood studios and making it tougher to navigate the state’s Movie Manufacturing Tax Credit score program, Bob Chiarito experiences for the Chicago Solar-Occasions.
Prairie State Manufacturing Alliance, a bunch of 61 impartial filmmakers and manufacturing corporations, despatched a letter to Pritzker final month saying the Movie Manufacturing Tax Credit score program is unfairly forcing indie filmmakers to undergo bureaucratic obstacles and interpret guidelines that aren’t clear.
They are saying the roadblocks have pushed some to lower their movie budgets, resulting in fewer jobs; others have canceled tasks, and a few are contemplating shifting productions to different states. These are all points the tax-credit program was supposed to protect in opposition to, the letter argues. [Chicago Sun-Times]
5. A beloved Chicago arts venue is closing with a bombastic and bittersweet dance marathon
The 47-year-old arts incubator Hyperlinks Corridor introduced in April that, as a result of a steep drop in grant cash, it will shut down completely. Regardless of a fundraising drive with a purpose of $350,000, the quantity raised was not sufficient to proceed operations.
As a substitute of a whimper, merely enjoying out the string of scheduled performances, Hyperlinks selected a bang: All day June 28, members of the prolonged Hyperlinks household will carry out, maintain a ceremony, dance and simply be collectively in an occasion referred to as Nightfall, WBEZ contributor Graham Meyer writes.
Hyperlinks has been a key venue within the metropolis’s experimental dance group, nurturing and staging new works by smaller teams and rising dancemakers. Its exit has prompted an outpouring of concern by dancers, who say Chicago doesn’t have comparable areas and that downtown leases are worth prohibitive. [WBEZ]
Right here’s what else is occurring
- The Israel-Iran ceasefire appeared to carry after Trump utilized strain. [NPR]
- New York Metropolis’s mayoral major election takes place at the moment, providing voters the prospect to rank disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, high-flying socialist Zohran Mamdani and others. [AP]
- A girl was charged with driving a automobile by downtown Chicago’s anti-ICE protest earlier this month. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- For older adults, a sturdy community of associates and family is essential to raised well being outcomes, a examine discovered. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Oh, and yet another factor …
Comedian ebook followers will lastly get to know somewhat extra about Riri Williams in Marvel’s new tv collection Ironheart.
Viewers will see loads of Chicago locales and expertise within the present that premieres at 8 p.m. tonight on Disney+ and picks up the place Black Panther: Wakanda Ceaselessly left off, my Chicago Solar-Occasions colleague Ambar Colón experiences.
The collection takes place on the South Aspect — the manufacturing truly filmed a number of days right here — whereas its director, Sam Bailey, grew up in Logan Sq..
For the story, Bailey turned to Chicago sociologist, artist and poet Eve L. Ewing’s model of Ironheart. The character first debuted in a 2016 comedian, Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3, #7, by Brian Michael Bendis and Stefano Caselli. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Inform me one thing good …
Although summertime may be excellent for journey, there’s rather a lot to discover within the Chicago space (to not point out, it’s simpler and cheaper). So with July Fourth arising, I’m questioning, what’s your excellent long-weekend staycation?
My Chicago Solar-Occasions colleague Lauren writes:
“Indiana Dunes!!! You can even South Shore prepare to the Dunes park. Chesterton is stuffed with pleasant spots to eat, from the diner that makes its personal biscuits to the flowery bakery in what seems like an previous financial institution. A avenue market on Saturday mornings, too. AND/OR identical South Shore prepare to a Gary Railcats baseball recreation. Tickets are low cost and plentiful, a youngsters’ ballgame of types normally breaks out within the grass subsequent to proper discipline, a playground behind the scoreboard and the ballpark meals consists of PIEROGIS.”
Be at liberty to e mail me, and your response could also be included within the publication this week.
