Good morning, Chicago.
Chicago Police Department brass accused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration of deliberately slowing down paychecks for dozens of employees this summer in a fiery email that warned the city was jeopardizing its compliance with the federal consent decree.
Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons emailed multiple officials in Johnson’s budget office June 2 to alert them of the department’s overdue A-forms, paperwork required to process paychecks for new hires and promotions. After following up the next day to confirm that police recruits were not getting their first paychecks, he sent an additional message June 10 saying Johnson’s budget office was purposely sitting on the forms.
“Given that we discussed at length via email and on our meeting on May 8th the need for timely approval of A-Forms, it would appear that OBM is pursuing a pattern of practice to delay the approval of A-Forms with the functional result of not paying employees on time and delaying compliance with the Consent Decree,” Fitzsimons wrote. “What is OBM’s plan to systemically approve or deny A-forms?”
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Alice Yin.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what Gov. JB Pritzker said at a climate change conference, why aldermen are debating gambling in Chicago’s neighborhood bars or international airports and how Dennis Allen’s defense is coming together as Bears training camp opens.
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Economic opportunities tied to climate goals, Gov. JB Pritzker says at Aspen conference
Gov. JB Pritzker shared his fears about the future of climate policy under President Donald Trump — and his thoughts on how Illinois can stick to its climate goals amid federal funding cuts — at a climate conference last night in Chicago.
Gambling machines in Chicago bars, airports? Aldermen weigh revenue potential.
Gambling could soon come to Chicago’s neighborhood bars or international airports as aldermen eye legalizing video gambling machines as a way to add tax revenue.
If Ald. William Hall gets his way, the gambling machines will be broadly legalized across the city next year, popping up in places like bars and restaurants to help address the city’s budget woes.
Man convicted of first-degree murder in slaying of CPD Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso
A Cook County jury convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso following a weeklong trial marked by difficult body camera footage of the 2023 slaying.
Veteran Chicago defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin dies at 78
Longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin, known as a tireless advocate for his clients who enjoyed holding the government accountable for overstepping authority in everything from terrorism investigations to electronic surveillance, died yesterday after a brief hospitalization. He was 78.
Today in Chicago History: ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ John Dillinger killed outside Biograph Theater
On this day in 1934: Chicago was in the grip of a weeklong heat wave, and the mercury that day reached 101. Twenty-three people died of the heat, but the death that drew the most attention was that of John Dillinger — a 31-year-old Indiana man who, on his birthday a month earlier, had been declared Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI.
In the heat of that July, movie houses advertised that they were “air-cooled.” Perhaps that’s what made Dillinger decide to take a prostitute named Polly Hamilton and Hamilton’s landlady, Anna Sage, to the Biograph Theater (now known as Victory Gardens Theater) at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., to see “Manhattan Melodrama,” a gangster movie starring Clark Gable.
Chicago Bears roster breakdown: How Dennis Allen’s defense is coming together as training camp opens
It wasn’t a massive overhaul, but the Bears made a few key changes on defense heading into 2025. General manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson focused much of their effort on the trenches, adding two starters to the defensive line.
Column: Comings (All-Star Game) and goings (NASCAR) as Chicago’s summer reminds us why we never leave
With the Bears starting training camp, the Cubs at home against the Kansas City Royals in the heat of a pennant race and the White Sox on a rare three-game winning streak, yesterday was one of those days that reminds us why we never can leave.
While we await the next heat dome, Paul Sullivan has some other observations on the world of sports.
Column: Amy Lechelt’s flower shop floats through town in a pink Mercedes
Amy Lechelt is a sort of modern-day Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl of “My Fair Lady.” She is in the same business and has had, so far, a full, interesting and rewarding life, writes Rick Kogan.
She is part of the city’s floating outdoor economy, which includes, most obviously, food trucks, but is nowhere near the vibrancy and variety in such places as Paris or New York.
Grilling up ‘octo’ with Monteverde’s Bailey Sullivan
About a month after her top-three finish on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Bailey Sullivan, free of cameras and in her comfort zone, was back to working as executive chef at Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio. For the past few months, diners at the West Loop restaurant have received their bill with a glowing portrait of Sullivan, celebrating her appearance on the show.
Sullivan’s personal style is memorable — ever-colorful hair, large glasses and rotating patterned bandanas. It seems to tell you everything about her on first look: quirky and easily creative. But that belies a scholarly understanding of Italian cooking history, techniques and terminology, and a serious competitor.
Review: ‘Girls & Boys’ by Griffin Theatre is a devastating solo memory play
In this one-woman play, British writer Dennis Kelly (a Tony Award winner for the book of “Matilda the Musical”) manages a tricky balancing act, tackling an extremely dark subject in almost surgical detail while softening its harshest blows for the audience and maintaining some sense of hope in humanity. Oh, and the show is also hilarious, writes Emily McClanathan.
