Good morning, Chicago.
For the second time this year, the majority of serious Chicago police misconduct cases are on hold as attorneys for the rank-and-file CPD officers’ union prepare to submit a challenge to a Cook County judge’s order that mandated those hearings be publicly accessible.
There are 19 pending cases currently before the Chicago Police Board, the body that’s meted out discipline in the most serious cases for six decades. But as of early July, at least 16 of those cases are halted because the city and union have yet to agree on a new structure for the yet-to-be-held arbitration hearings.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Sam Charles.
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Highland Park marches in first July Fourth parade since mass shooting
Highland Park residents on Thursday took a major step in the town’s collective grief: They gathered wagons, ribbons and flags for a July Fourth parade.
Two years after a gunman killed seven people and injured dozens more at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade, the North Shore suburb is continuing to reckon with how to both honor the victims and celebrate the holiday.
2 women dead, 3 children hospitalized after Grand Crossing shooting
Michael Lemon woke up in his home early on the July Fourth holiday to the sound of what he thought were firecrackers. Instead, he found his mother, brother and cousins bloodied and bullet holes in the front windows.
“Ran out my room, seen my little brother bleeding. I just seen bloodshed. Once I saw blood, I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Took an innocent woman’s life, took two innocent women’s lives. … Chicago ain’t got no remorse.”
Three children in the Grand Crossing home were critically injured and two women were killed when gunmen got out of cars in the 7100 block of South Woodlawn Avenue and sprayed the house with bullets, Chicago police said.
Early closure at 31st Street Beach over holiday weekend after recent fatal shootings
Citing “ongoing and escalating” violence at 31st Street Beach in recent weeks, 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson has successfully lobbied for the early closure of the beach over the holiday weekend.
The beach will have a boosted police presence, new fencing and cameras. Bag checks and “heavily enforced” towing of illegally parked cars nearby has already been in place and will continue, Robinson said on social media this week.
Revival Food Hall vendors may stay after lease dispute
Revival Food Hall devotees may be able to keep chowing down at the Loop staple after all.
The company posted on Instagram this week that the beloved indoor market would close at the end of the month after eight years of business, but the situation is more complex than the statement indicated as the landlord, CBRE, has expressed its intention to keep operating the food court.
Israel weighs Hamas’ latest response to Gaza cease-fire proposal as diplomatic efforts are revived
Israel’s Cabinet convened Thursday to discuss Hamas’ latest response to a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire in Gaza, as diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the nine-month war stirred back to life after a weekslong hiatus.
Fighting, meanwhile, intensified between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, with the group saying it fired more than 200 rockets and exploding drones into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a senior commander in an Israeli airstrike the day before.
Keir Starmer takes power as prime minister as UK Labour Party sweeps to power in historic election win
Britain’s Labour Party swept to power Friday after more than a decade in opposition, as a jaded electorate handed the party a landslide victory — but also a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation.
Labour leader Keir Starmer will officially become prime minister later in the day, leading his party back to government less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century.
‘Chicago Bound: The Great Migration of the Blues’ heads to Chicago’s parks to tell the story behind the music
If Chicago’s annual Blues Festival in June whet your appetite for more blues this summer, the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks aims to give you what you crave with “Chicago Bound: The Great Migration of the Blues.”
Chicago native Patrick Bertoletti wins his first men’s title at annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest
Bertoletti won in a tight, 10-minute race where the leader bounced back and forth. The 39-year-old Bertoletti defeated 13 competitors from around the world in a test to see who can wolf down the most hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Chicago baseball report: Cubs feeling Adbert Alzolay’s absence — and White Sox’s Michael Soroka pitching with ‘a chip on my shoulder’
Manager Pedro Grifol returns home this weekend when the Chicago White Sox visit the Miami Marlins. And the Cubs will welcome the Los Angeles Angels to Wrigley Field after preventing their first sweep this year in a series of at least three games by winning Thursday’s finale against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Column: With the ICON closed, Chicago’s South Loop runs its last picture show, for now
At the back of the U-shaped Roosevelt Collection retail complex, on Delano Court at Roosevelt Road, there’s a multiplex for lease. Until the last day of June, the place wasn’t just a place, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. It was a ShowPlace: The Kerasotes ShowPlace ICON.
And now? The Roosevelt Collection management company is taking meetings in search of a new operator. And the South Loop movie options are, at present, none.
‘MaXXXine’ review: A porn star goes Hollywood as Ti West’s horror trilogy ends with a thud
Sorry to report: Even a mostly glossy cast can’t prevent Ti West’s “MaXXXine” from being a bring-down, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips.
It’s a peculiarly static and distant third in the trilogy begun with the ripe and crafty 1979-set “X” and its giddily inventive prequel “Pearl,” set in 1918. With its 1985 Hollywood milieu, “MaXXXine” affords writer-director West a promising immersion in the grubby, heavily saturated low-fi imagery of ’80s horror and thriller movies.
