Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: City Council leaders brokered an agreement that could pave the way for a New York firm to acquire Chicago’s parking meters — but unlike former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s long-despised deal, it would include lucrative benefits for the city and motorists.
🗞️ Plus: How a gun got on a school bus, the “Broadview Six” push for a special counsel, the year of Chaka Khan — and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs fell to Atlanta, 6-3; the White Sox lost to Cleveland, 7-6.
🌧️ Today’s weather: Cloudy with a chance of showers and a high near 72.
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⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S TOP STORIES 🔎
City Council brokers parking meter compromise
Reporting by Fran Spielman
Parking breaks?: City Council leaders have brokered a proposed deal that could pave the way for approval of New York investment firm Stonepeak Partners to acquire Chicago’s parking meters for $2.5 billion, in exchange for benefits for the city and motorists. The deal could chip away at the city’s $882 million budget gap and create a new revenue stream.
Included in the deal: A proposed profit-sharing arrangement equal to 5% of net income received by Stonepeak and its operating entity, Chicago Parking Meters LLC. That is expected to produce at least $376.2 million for the city over the course of the agreement, which expires in 2083. That larger payment will also be earmarked for underfunded city pensions.
Key context: The City Council’s Latino Caucus united in opposition to Stonepeak because of the company’s 2025 acquisition of Omni Air International, which has provided long-haul deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security. To appease caucus members, Stonepeak has committed to selling the charter airline.
Who’s responsible?: The city’s Law Department provided technical assistance to a five-member City Council negotiating team. Aside from that, however, Mayor Brandon Johnson was a bystander.
More on City Hall:
- William J. Quinlan, son of Richard J. Daley’s corporation counsel, joins crowded race for mayor
- City Council committee backs raising threshold for taking on debt
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU 🗣️
How do you feel about City Council’s potential new parking meter deal? Explain.
Reply to this question via email (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
PUBLIC SAFETY 🚨
Terrified mom raced to scene after gun fired on bus
Reporting by Mohammad Samra
Mom’s fear: When Laquita Anderson’s 12-year-old son, Jimele Richardson, who has autism, wasn’t home from school at his usual time Monday, she began making frantic calls. Then Jimele’s school called to report “an accident on the bus,” sending Anderson racing to Minnie Miñoso Academy in Bridgeport. When she arrived, she learned another boy found a gun on the bus and fired it, near where Jimele was sitting. Now, Anderson said her son is scared of the bus and struggling to sleep.
Bus aide charged: Steven Dixon Jr., 22, was charged with a felony count of possessing or carrying a firearm on school property and misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and reckless conduct, police said. Dixon allegedly stepped off the bus and left a bag with a gun, which a student found and fired. A bus driver inside the bus took away the gun from the boy. “What happened?” Dixon asked when he returned to the bus, according to a police report.
TRANSPORTATION 🚌
Group builds makeshift bus-stop benches
Reporting by David Struett
DIY benches: The Northwest Neighborhood Alliance, a neighborhood group, has been building and placing wooden benches by bus stops without city-provided seating. The group says having a place to sit is an accessibility issue — and a matter of dignity. Group members want to build more benches, but they’re waiting to see what the city does because, technically, the benches are illegal.
Key context: The CTA has nearly 11,000 bus stops. Many of them don’t have benches. Over the last decade, the city has removed benches from bus stops to deter loitering, according to news reports
WATCH: METER BACKSTORY ▶️
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Special counsel calls: In a Tuesday filing, attorneys for the since-acquitted protesters known as the “Broadview Six” argued that “significant failings” by Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros demonstrate the need for an independent special counsel to figure out what went wrong with the tainted conspiracy case.
- Man sentenced in fatal stabbing: Tony Robinson, a homeless man who fatally stabbed visiting graduate student Anat Kimchi in 2021, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The sentencing hearing featured emotional testimony from Kimchi’s loved ones and also rants from Robinson.
- Fed takes the stand: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Luis Uribe took the stand Tuesday, as his trial nears its end. Prosecutors have accused him of a series of sexual assaults in 2022.
- Ex-top cop’s pension: Former Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling, who retired July 15, is set to receive a pension of nearly $190,000 a year, records show.
- More aid after storms: Gov. JB Pritzker has extended an emergency proclamation for Illinois during severe weather over the summer while also requesting federal funds to help with recovery.
- New public art: Outside Google’s Chicago headquarters, formerly the James R. Thompson Center, artist Sanford Biggers will create a 30-foot-tall sculpture inspired by quilt patterns, the tech giant announced.
- Greening up Chicago: A contest, sponsored by World Business Chicago, has announced Morton Arboretum and landscape designer MKSK as having winning proposals to green up the city. Now, they’ll collaborate to realize their plans, which include a network of arboreta and leafier boulevards.
- ‘Princess Bride’ musical: The anticipated new Broadway musical “The Princess Bride” is swashbuckling its way to Chicago, with a premiere at the James M. Nederlander Theatre next July, a mawage between film and stage.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏒🏈🏀
- Captain Connor Bedard: Bedard is now the Blackhawks’ captain, their best player and the face of the franchise, all in one.
- Bear with me: The mojo is workin’ heading into the Bears’ home opener against the Vikings, writes Steve Greenberg.
- The to-do list: Here are five needles the next WNBA commissioner will have to thread.
- High school boys basketball: If you redo the rankings for the Class of 2022, Braden Huff is still No. 1, writes Joe Henricksen.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 5A: Equity ___ Awards (Chicago theater scene recognition)
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Chaka Khan is having a very good 2026
Reporting by Erica Thompson
To see Chaka Khan perform is to be both enthralled by her icon status and charmed by her approachability.
Khan, 73, has been the talk of the industry – and social media – in 2026. Highlights of her busy year include her viral performance of “Through the Fire” for the popular music platform COLORSx STUDIOS; the West End debut of “I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical;” her lifetime achievement Grammy award; and the new project with Sia. There’s also the induction of her 1984 hit, “I Feel For You,” into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
Her schedule has been full of song drops, video premieres, shows and other commitments. But Khan, born Yvette Marie Stevens in Chicago, is doing it all on her own terms, and at a pace that keeps her happy and at ease after years in a grueling industry.
“It’s been nice and peaceful, and I am able to do what I really want to do with the music,” Khan told the Sun-Times. “I always wanted to feel this free with my music.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Yesterday, we asked you: What’s a clear sign that fall has arrived in Chicago?
Here’s some of what you said, edited for length and clarity.
“Needing to rake the lawn, and the need to turn off the a/c in favor of a throw! Autumn is coming!” — Christine Bock
“Bears fans wearing Bears jerseys, football season is here. Go Bears!” — Rich Barber
“My allergies!” — Maria Ana
“Buckingham Fountain goes off. Boats go in. Millennium Park events stop. Chicago Public Schools is in full swing with homecomings and such.” — Kimberly Owens-Goldstein
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Michael Lansu