‘Backyard rodeos’ spark steer safety concerns

Good morning, Chicago. ✶

🔎 Below: We take you to the world of suburban backyard rodeos, where steers are knocked down and sometimes stripped of their tails.

🗞️ Plus: Decomposing bodies discovered at a funeral home, ICE threatens Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and more news you need to know.

📝 Keeping score: The Cubs beat the Blue Jays, 3-2; the White Sox fell to the Red Sox, 12-11.

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⏱️: An 8-minute read

TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️

After some morning fog, mostly sunny with a high near 85.

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 🔎

‘Backyard rodeos’ under fire, with steers knocked down, sometimes stripped of their tails

Reporting by Robert Herguth

Rodeo POV: A man on horseback in a corral rides alongside a fleeing steer while reaching for the animal’s tail, which he skillfully wraps around his right cowboy boot while maintaining a grip on the appendage. The steer twists and tumbles to the dirt. The rider — part of a so-called backyard rodeo in the far northwest suburbs last summer — gallops off, holding part of the steer’s tail, which was ripped free.

At issue: The injury is common at these types of events, according to animal rights activists who have been trying to stop what’s known as steer tailing, saying it amounts to animal abuse that’s illegal under state law, though seldom enforced.

Crackdown resistance: There has been resistance to cracking down on steer tailing, called “coleadero” in Spanish, because of its place in Mexican rodeo culture dating back centuries. Sen. Li Arellano Jr. (R-Dixon), who cosponsored a stalled proposal to ban steer-tailing, says its “injury rate is higher than almost any other rodeo event,” and he knows of no reputable U.S. rodeo organization that promotes steer tailing. Arellano likens steer-tailing “to cockfighting and bullfighting” and says, “The day for coleadero is over.”

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PUBLIC SAFETY 🚨

57 decomposing bodies discovered at Far South Side funeral home

Reporting by Violet Miller and Cindy Hernandez

Bodies discovered: Fifty-seven decomposing bodies were found Thursday at South Chicago Chapel, a funeral home in South Deering, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A funeral was in progress when police, acting on a tip, showed up. Neighbors have complained of horrible smells and questioned the late hours staff seemed to be working at the funeral home.

Police report: Officers were met by funeral director Clark Morgan, who accompanied them on a walk-through of the building, where police found the bodies in various areas of the home, according to the police report. At some point, officers left the building, and when they tried to re-enter, Morgan locked them out and left. Officers called the fire department to get in again.

Key context: The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended the license of the registered funeral director Johanna Morgan. Her husband previously held a funeral director and embalmer intern license, which was revoked in 2024, according to the department.

Identifying loved ones: The Cook County medical examiner’s office said it’s trying to identify the remains and connect with possible descendants of the deceased. One person came to the scene Thursday night asking police whether her mother’s remains had been found.

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CHICAGO HISTORY 🐳

When Shedd Aquarium’s first beluga whales came to Chicago

Reporting by Stefano Esposito

Shedd’s first belugas: In 1991, the Shedd Aquarium got its first beluga whales via Canada’s Hudson Bay. No. 1 and No. 3, as the two female belugas were known then, were flown from Tacoma, Washington, a journey that drew international attention. In part, because of the sheer audacity of hauling marine behemoths out of tanks and into trucks, then onto a plane to a new home.

The controversy: Like the belugas’ arrival from Canada in July, those that came in 1991 sparked protests from activists saying it’s cruel to keep whales in “concrete tanks” — the point sharpened, those protesters said, when two Shedd belugas died within minutes of each other 1½ years after the Shedd Aquarium’s new $43 million Abbott Oceanarium.

Looking back: We took a look back at the first arrival of belugas in Chicago and talked with the people who made it happen and who protested passionately.

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IMMIGRATION ✶

• ICE threatens Dart: Federal immigration enforcement officials threatened to file criminal charges against Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart if he failed to comply with subpoenas asking his office to turn over detainees being held at Cook County Jail. The sheriff’s office said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sent four subpoenas and threatening letters.
• Musician and husband detained: Omar David Panqueva, known as DJ TUNJO, and his husband Santiago Paez were detained by federal agents at Midway Airport Sunday before leaving for a tour in support of megastar Karol G. Their attorney said the couple had pending asylum cases.
• Man sentenced in gun incident: A federal judge sentenced Hector Gomez to 30 months in prison after he admitted he fired a gun “in proximity of” U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents during the final days of Operation Midway Blitz last fall.

MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️

• Family sues after Fox River crash: Magdalena Jablonska was killed in a boat crash on the Fox River last month. Now her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the man who caused it.
• No laughing matter: Nearly 16% of 110 comedians who either lived in Chicago or performed in the city during the first half of this year lack health insurance, a new report from the Health Alliance for Chicago Comedians found.
• Things to do Aug. 7-12: Chance the Rapper live, the Bud Billiken Parade and Northalsted Market Days are among the highlights in the week ahead.

PICTURE CHICAGO 📸

More than 90,000 rubber ducks raced/floated/bobbed haphazardly toward the finish line near the Columbus Drive Bridge Thursday morning as hundreds of spectators lined the Riverwalk to cheer them on.

It was all part of what has become an annual tradition to raise money for Special Olympics Illinois.

Since 2005, the Chicago Ducky Derby has invited people to adopt rubber ducks starting at $10 each, with bigger sponsor packs available. The ducks are dumped into the Chicago River and head toward the finish line. The money raised helps provide year-round sports programming, adaptive equipment and other resources for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

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ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻

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• Weekly news recap: The Sun-Times’ Sophie Sherry, the Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella and WTTW’s Brandis Friedman join the show to break down the week’s top stories.

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

• Who gets to claim they’re a Chicagoan?: Callers weigh in.

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FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚾

• Remembering John Damore: The oldest living Bear, Mr. Damore died Tuesday at age 92. “There weren’t many people out there who didn’t just think he was the super nicest guy,” his son told the Sun-Times.
• Cubs’ defensive draw: A legitimate shot at October glory and the electric atmosphere at Wrigley Field are selling points, sure, but the newly arrived Cubs pitchers say they are mostly thrilled to play in front of a dazzling defense.
• High school football preview: Playoff expansion is the No. 1 storyline ahead of this football season.

CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭

Today’s clue: 4D: What Chicago gets (on average) about 36 inches of per year

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BRIGHT ONE 🔆

Northbrook native Jordy brings ‘cool boy summer’ to Market Days

Reporting by Selena Fragassi

Jordy has a confession to make.

“Honestly, this will be my first Market Days,” he said ahead of the long-running Northalsted/Lake View street festival, which he headlines on Sunday.

Although the 31-year-old GLAAD and Queerties-nominated singer/songwriter, born Jordan Shulman, grew up in Northbrook, he “never really lived in Chicago as an adult.” He left for college, majoring in English at Boston University, followed by a move to Los Angeles in 2017 to pursue his dreams of becoming a bona fide pop artist.

That goal was met in 2019 with his breakout hit “Just Friends” and reached a fever pitch in 2023 when his song “Story of a Boy” went viral after it was featured in social media posts where transgender people shared before-and-after photos of their transition. His popularity led to appearances on “The Today Show,” “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “Good Morning America.”

The success of “Story of a Boy” and what it has meant to the LGBTQ community has been the lead-up to the singer’s appearance at Market Days (and Chicago Pride Festival in 2023), and he couldn’t be happier about how his career has played out.

“It’s special to be in a space like Market Days where we’ve all kind of shared such similar journeys,” he told the Sun-Times. “Every single one of us at some point in life felt like we didn’t belong in a space and now we’re making up an entire space together, and I love that.”

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

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