O’Hare to the Loop in 15 minutes? New company thinks it can happen

Good morning, Chicago. ✶

🔎 Below: Where Elon Musk and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel failed, owners of a new company think they can finally bring fast rail to Chicago.

🗞️ Plus: Chicago Public Schools ends summer of budget angst, “Soul City” waits for its promised landmark and more news you need to know.

📝 Keeping score: The Cubs shut out the Diamondbacks, 7-0; the White Sox fell to the Rangers, 11-2.

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⏱️: An 8-minute read

TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️

Mostly sunny with a high near 81.

CHICAGO JIGSAW PUZZLE 🧩

Piece together history to reveal more about today’s photo from the Sun-Times archives.

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TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎

This company thinks it can finally bring fast rail to Chicago

Reporting by David Struett

O’Hare Flyer: People have tried and failed over the years to build a nonstop, quick rail connection from the Loop to O’Hare Airport, but a new company says it can succeed with the O’Hare Flyer — an affordable 15-minute trip from the Old Post Office to O’Hare on battery-powered trains at an average of 80 mph.

Who’s behind this?: The $2.25 billion pitch is from veteran Chicago train consultant Mark Walbrun — who led the redesign of Union Station in the 1990s — and fellow cofounders David Lundy, a strategic consultant, and Kristi Lafleur, former director of the Illinois Tollway and former CEO of the Chicago Skyway.

How would it work?: The key to success, they say, is using newly freed-up freight railroad land at a Union Pacific yard on the Near West Side. It’s now possible for a private company to run quick crosstown service — through the West and Northwest sides — with minimal construction on 100% dedicated tracks, they say. They plan to build a station just west of the Old Post Office, using the long-abandoned tracks under Canal Street.

Key context: In 2018, Elon Musk was chosen by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to build an underground tunnel from downtown to O’Hare, with then-untested “Hyperloop” technology that promised 12-minute trips in autonomous vehicles racing over 100 mph. The project fell through after Emanuel chose not to seek reelection and Musk was scrutinized for smoking pot on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

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EDUCATION 🍎

School is back in session for CPS students after summer of budget angst

Reporting by Emmanuel Camarillo and Sarah Karp

First day finances: Chicago Public Schools classes resumed Monday for some 300,000 students, following a summer in which layoffs and last-minute budget changes made it challenging for schools to plan. CPS is now in the process of rehiring laid-off staff and placing them at schools with vacancies while officials wait to see if the state or city will come through with the extra revenue that CPS is counting on.

The positives: District officials point to the addition of special education staff to support the rising number of CPS students with disabilities, and the expansion of dual language and world language programs that help students learn a language other than English.

Around the city: With a DJ playing hip-hop and balloons flying overhead, students were welcomed back to Leland Elementary, where Mayor Brandon Johnson rang the ceremonial bell. At Prosser Career Academy, fresh haircuts and first-day selfies defined the day. And for Burnetta Cox, Monday marked her first day as a teacher at Revere Elementary School: “I want them to see me as someone they can depend on,” she said of her new students.

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ARTS AND CULTURE 🎨

Austin was christened ‘Soul City.’ It’s still waiting for its landmark.

Reporting by Erica Thompson

Waiting on the city: Since 2020, Austin residents have been waiting for the city to build a gateway arch at the entrance of its Soul City Corridor, the stretch of Chicago Avenue from Austin Boulevard to Cicero Avenue touting several Black-owned businesses, including the Avenue Que and Kitchen, Spill the Beans coffee shop, T&C Fitness Club and Forty Acres Fresh Market.

High hopes: Neighbors were thrilled when an artist, Bernard Williams, was selected, and renderings were drawn up. And last year, Illinois designated a larger segment of Austin as Soul City, one of 15 official cultural districts in the state, paving the way for $200,000 in additional monies to boost the neighborhood.

Stalled promise: Gateway construction has stalled, leaving the burgeoning development of Black business, arts and culture unidentifiable to those driving from the west suburbs into the city. The delay of a single symbol illustrates how bureaucratic the process to create a cultural district in Illinois can be.

See for yourself: From a renovated concert auditorium to a youth urban design group, here are four arts spaces contributing to Austin’s revival.

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MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️

• Crash and ICE arrest: Federal immigration officers hit a truck on Interstate 55 before chasing and detaining a man in McKinley Park Monday, drawing a crowd of protesters who remained on the scene for hours after, according to local Ald. Julia Ramirez.
• CBP agent cries foul: Luis Uribe, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who allegedly used his gun and badge to rape multiple women, is asking a judge to toss his indictment because it was returned by the same grand jury allegedly “indoctrinated” through the feds’ misconduct in the “Broadview Six” case.
• Guilty plea in fatal stabbing: Nearly four years after Keshia Golden fatally stabbed her child’s father, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 months of probation at a packed court hearing Monday. Her attorneys say she was acting in self-defense and are calling for a pardon from Gov. JB Pritzker.
• Pfleger reinstated: The Rev. Michael Pfleger was reinstated at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn Gresham following an investigation into child sex abuse claims against him from decades ago, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced.
• Wartime lessons: Fresh off a 10-day congressional delegation trip to five European countries, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi thinks the U.S. should be taking notes from Ukraine when it comes to their battlefield tactics, including how the use of drones is changing warfare.
• Zillow resolves FTC suit: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with Zillow and Redfin to resolve the regulator’s claim that the companies made an illegal deal to suppress competition in online rental advertising.
• Daily Herald union effort: Shortly after a wave of layoffs earlier this month, the editorial staff at the suburban publication announced a unionization effort, according to the Daily Herald News Guild.
• NIPSCO scrutiny: Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called for an investigation into the utility provider for Northwest Indiana as thousands remain without power in the area following Aug. 11 storms.

WATCH: POWERLESS IN GARY ▶️

MUST-READ COMMENTARY 🗣️

• Neil Steinberg: Do legal challenges to hate speech protect Jews or threaten them?
• Natalie Moore: As a bicentennial baby born in 1976, I’m a middle-age milestone while watching the country ungracefully grow old.
• Abby Miller: Glimpsing the spot where the White Eagle once stood sparks thoughts of my Polish family’s Chicago story.
• Rummana Hussain: The recent victories by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, resonate and send conservatives into a tailspin.

ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻

In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.

• What exactly is Medicare for All?: As the election heats up, one of the issues on the campaign trail is Medicare for All. A leading health policy expert joins the show to discuss.
• The Black Men Flower Project: Since 2021, Black men nationwide have received, sometimes for the first time, bouquets of flowers from other Black men through the project. John Pendleton, one of the people behind the initiative, stops by to reflect.

Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.

• Food recalls: How do you feel about all the food recalls? What are you doing to protect yourself from foodborne illnesses? Callers weigh in.

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FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏀🏈⚾

• Courting controversy: Enes Kanter Freedom brought middle-school energy to the WNBA, writes Alissa Hirsh.
• Crash course: Inside the battle between Bears RT Darnell Wright and DE Montez Sweat that has brought the best out of both.
• Smith’s Sox future: After an injury pushed him into relief for the rest of 2026, rookie Hagen Smith is showing the stuff that made him the fifth overall pick two years ago.
• Were preseason rankings wrong?: Michael O’Brien breaks down some major developments from Week 1 of high school football.
• State of sports radio: The Jarrett Payton-David Haugh pairing on The Score’s morning show is evidence of a dried-up pipeline, writes Jeff Agrest.

CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭

Today’s clue: 1A: Doro ___ (Ethiopian Diamond specialty)

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BRIGHT ONE 🔆

Humboldt Park mural celebrates stories of faith

Reporting by Genevieve Bookwalter

Diamond V. Galindo grew up in Humboldt Park’s New Life Community Church. She stopped by after school for homework help. She spent her summers there, signing up for its programs for kids.

Artist Alecks Cruz didn’t know any of that when he asked Galindo, whose artist name is Diamond Doodle, to be lead artist for a new mural on the side of the church at 1410 N. Springfield Ave. as part of his program, The Heart Project. But for Galindo, who now lives in West Ridge, it was her chance to thank the church and community that helped her as a neighborhood kid in Humboldt Park.

“I feel like this is my thank you note to it,” Galindo says. “When he told me they’re going to do a mural over there, I said, ‘Let’s do this.’ We did this whole mural representing the community, bringing hope and light. They’re a second family in that church.”

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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Edited by: Michael Lansu