Good afternoon! It’s Friday, and after in the present day’s heat temperatures, rain is predicted for a lot of the weekend. Right here’s what else you could know in the present day.
1. Chicago road festivals are sounding the alarm on rising prices, together with safety
Neighborhood road fests — a staple of summertime within the metropolis — are struggling to outlive, in response to a brand new coalition of 20 pageant organizers that features Chicago’s Delight Fest, Style of Randolph and the Sq. Roots Fest.
As my colleague Courtney Kueppers stories, the organizers have joined forces to say the present mannequin has develop into unsustainable as a result of the costs of safety, leisure, moveable restrooms, insurance coverage and even fundamentals like fencing and staffing have elevated considerably.
On the identical time, donations at pageant gates have dropped dramatically, in response to Pamela Maass, government director of the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce.
Maass mentioned Wicker Park Fest — recognized for its indie music lineup — has been compelled to reduce this 12 months’s footprint. In a cost-saving effort, the pageant will take away a stage and have fewer performers after final 12 months’s pageant reported record-breaking attendance, however the lowest stage of gate donations within the occasion’s 20-year historical past.
The coalition mentioned there’s usually confusion over how the occasions are funded and why road festivals ask for a donation on the entrance whereas downtown city-run occasions, akin to Blues Fest, don’t. [WBEZ]
2. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says public security is below assault by the Trump administration
The federal authorities’s deliberate cuts embody the dissolution of the White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, threats to slash funding for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the repeal of “zero tolerance” for “rogue gun sellers,” my colleague Chip Mitchell writes.
“They’re making it simpler for weapons to fall into our communities and more durable for us to struggle again,” Pritzker mentioned throughout an occasion within the Pullman neighborhood yesterday.
The governor additionally referenced a U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers memo “that proposes eliminating completely all federal violence intervention funds.”
The occasion drew a whole bunch of anti-violence violence employees from across the Chicago space to spotlight analysis exhibiting steep drops in shootings during the last two years in elements of the town the place a Peacekeepers Program has targeted.
Pritzker, whose identify has repeatedly come up amongst potential presidential nominees, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, occurring the offensive about cuts in lots of areas, together with well being care and training. [WBEZ]
3. Almost 1 in 4 out-of-state abortion sufferers come to Illinois, a brand new report discovered
For the reason that Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Illinois has develop into a serious haven for folks from the Midwest and South in search of abortion care, Kaitlin Washburn stories for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
Illinois supplied 23% of all abortions for folks touring throughout state strains for care in 2024, greater than anyplace else within the U.S., in response to a report from the Guttmacher Institute, a analysis and coverage group that helps abortion rights.
“The most recent abortion journey knowledge are a transparent reminder that the affect of a state’s abortion insurance policies extends far past its borders,” Kimya Forouzan, Guttmacher Institute’s principal state coverage adviser, mentioned in a press release. [Chicago Sun-Times]
4. The Midwest’s largest artwork honest is coming. Right here’s what’s new and notable.
Artwork from across the globe — together with the who’s who of the artwork world — will descend on the town subsequent week for EXPO Chicago.
The sprawling show of practically 200 galleries from 36 nations arrives at Navy Pier’s Pageant Corridor at a second when each the humanities world and efforts to diversify it are below shut scrutiny by the federal authorities.
EXPO Chicago and its jam-packed lineup runs April 24-27 inside Navy Pier’s Pageant Corridor. The sheer dimension of the honest can appear daunting, however my colleagues have you ever coated with programming highlights, plus some recommendations on the right way to dealer a deal if you happen to’re seeking to develop — or begin — your personal artwork assortment. [WBEZ]
5. The Numero Group is placing the historical past of Illinois soul onto your bookshelf
Soul Music of Illinois, edited by native collector Dante Carfagna, is an exhaustive visible survey of our state’s essential position within the style, WBEZ contributor Tal Rosenberg stories.
The primary quantity captures the many years by way of textual content and pictures, with alphabetical indexes of Illinois labels, artists and Illinois artists on non-Illinois labels, plus a polychromatic gallery of report sleeves and covers (additionally organized alphabetically).
The second quantity presents an array of pictures, press pictures, fliers, newspaper commercials, enterprise playing cards and even handwritten letters, an unmatched collation of ephemera associated to Illinois soul. [WBEZ]
Right here’s what else is occurring
- A decide ordered new limits on DOGE knowledge entry on the Social Safety Administration. [NPR]
- Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with the person the U.S. wrongly deported to El Salvador. [AP]
- A lethal U.S. airstrike on a Yemeni oil port appeared to escalate Trump’s marketing campaign towards the Houthis. [AP]
- The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs start tomorrow. [NPR]
Oh, and another factor …
Restoration of North Lawndale’s historic Sears sunken backyard’s primary characteristic, a 100-foot lengthy Mediterranean revival-styled pergola, is ready to start this summer season, Lee Bey writes for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
Development drawings are being finalized that can information the rehabilitation of the important thing visible characteristic of the practically 2-acre, 120-year-old sunken backyard, inbuilt 1907 by Sears, Roebuck and Firm.
“It’s the classical centerpiece of [the] backyard, and to have that restored goes to be superb,” mentioned the Rev. Reshorna Fitzpatrick, chairperson of Buddies of Sears Sunken Backyard board. “It’s one thing you possibly can see if you’re driving down the road — and it’ll be eye-catching to have it redone.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
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?
Mary writes:
“Everybody has a nutty uncle and my father’s brother was ours. Yearly for Easter, he would cover colorfully dyed actual hardboiled eggs throughout their expansive suburban backyard and we, adults and kids, would got down to discover them. And every year, we’d uncover smelly remnants from the earlier Easter hunt. One 12 months, loopy uncle uncared for to laborious boil the eggs and used raw ones of their lieu. He hid 48 eggs nicely…too nicely. We solely discovered 30. The next Easter, the hunt was halted as a result of the raw, rotten, eggs from the earlier Easter smelled so foul that none of us needed to comb by way of the beds of pachysandra and forsythia to seek out them. Loopy uncle hadn’t seen. ‘I’ve the most important nostril of all and I can’t odor them!’ he proclaimed. That was our final Easter egg hunt. Alas!”
And Beth writes:
“Throughout the pandemic, my favourite tulip vendor wasn’t capable of open their fields to company, which meant their income would endure. So, I purchased 25 bunches and put them on the curb and invited anybody who needed to to take a bunch. We’ll have the sixth annual this 12 months.”
Thanks for the responses this week! It was nice listening to everybody’s tales.
