Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: After President Donald Trump appeared to signal that the National Guard will skip Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker said he’s “glad” but skeptical, noting that military presence in the city is still possible and more federal immigration activity is likely.
🗞️ Plus: Far-right activist Charlie Kirk is gunned down in Utah, Timothy Evans is out as Cook County’s chief judge after 24 years and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs beat Atlanta, 3-2; the White Sox bested the Rays, 6-5.
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⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Sunny with a high near 80.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Charlie Kirk — conservative activist, suburban native, Trump ally — is gunned down in Utah
By Mary Norkol, Lynn Sweet and the Associated Press
Broad day shooting: Charlie Kirk, a native of suburban Chicago and an influential young conservative closely allied with President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after he was shot at an event in Utah. Kirk, who was born in Arlington Heights and attended Wheeling High School, was 31.
Shooter at large: Authorities say Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop. Whoever fired the gun then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter as of press time Thursday morning.
Key context: The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the U.S. Kirk rose from being a teenage conservative campus activist to a top podcaster and far-right, influential ally of Trump, with a penchant for provocative statements about gender, race, politics and gun rights.
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶
Timothy Evans out as Cook County chief judge after 24 years
Reporting by Violet Miller
Evans out: Chief Judge Timothy Evans lost his bid Wednesday for a ninth term at the helm of Illinois’ largest judicial circuit — after 24 years in the seat — to Judge Charles Beach, according to a spokesperson with the judge’s office.
Ballot count: Beach, the newly elected Cook County Circuit Court chief judge, received 144 votes to Evans’ 109, or about 57% of the votes cast by circuit judges, though one ballot was “spoiled,” the spokesperson said. Beach will serve a three-year term starting Dec. 1.
Key context: The loss was an upset for Evans, 82, who was first elected by unanimous vote in September 2001, becoming the first African American to serve in the role. He has remained since, in the longest continuous term of anyone in the seat, and will continue to serve as a judge.
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶
Slain CPD Officer Krystal Rivera’s name is added to Chicago Police Officers Memorial
Reporting by Kade Heather
Officer honored: The late Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera’s mother and daughter peeled off black and white checkered tape to reveal Rivera’s name on the Chicago Police Officers Memorial during a Wednesday ceremony at the Gold Star Families Memorial and Park on the Museum Campus.
Key context: Rivera, 36, was shot and killed June 5 by her partner, Officer Carlos Baker, during a foot chase into a Chatham apartment that police said was filled with guns and drugs. Two men have been charged in the chase, and Baker was stripped of his police powers last month for an unrelated incident.
Judge’s ruling: Earlier Wednesday, a Cook County judge declined to lift an order barring the release of body-camera videos and other records related to Rivera’s fatal shooting.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS 🧩
This week’s Chicago-style crossword theme is: Murals.
Here’s your clue:
19D: ___ 4 the City (annual Chicago graffiti competition)
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
- Life expectancy: Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic took years off Chicagoans’ lives, residents are expected to live longer, nearly matching the prepandemic average age of 79 years. The stark gap between life expectancies of Black Chicagoans and Chicagoans of other races has shrunk to about 11 years, the city said.
- 9/11 commemorations: Americans nationwide are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes honoring the victims.
- Man shot during robbery: A Brinks armored car guard shot and wounded an alleged robber in the Loop before police took the suspect into custody Wednesday morning, officials said.
- Chicagoans sue city: Four residents filed a federal class action lawsuit Wednesday alleging the city has failed to make sidewalks, curb ramps and other public pedestrian ways accessible to people with mobility disabilities.
- Another CHA shakeup: Dominick Maniscalco, head of the Chicago Housing Authority’s human resources department, resigned last week, marking the ninth senior leader to exit the agency in the last year.
- Quantum park demands: At a packed community meeting in South Chicago, residents discussed the quantum computing campus planned at the former U.S. Steel South Works site, calling for environmental protections and jobs.
- Reilly in the race: Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) announced he is looking to leave his longtime post as Downtown alderman and unseat Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in the 2026 Democratic primary.
CHICAGO ON GUARD ✶
Gov. Pritzker ‘glad’ Trump is shifting focus from sending National Guard to Chicago
Reporting by Tina Sfondeles and Sophie Sherry
Guard down?: Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday said he’s “glad” President Trump is signaling a shift away from sending the National Guard to Chicago — at least for now — but emphasized that a president-led military presence in the city is still a possibility, and that more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid activity is likely on the way.
Key context: Trump told reporters Tuesday night that he would focus on sending the guard to another city and said he is working with a governor “who would love us to be there.” The president has yet to announce which city he was referencing.
Volunteers on alert: In response to Trump’s campaign against immigration, which he has dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” activists have been volunteering to head to possible ICE raid activity when it happens.
The work: In instances where rapid responders encounter agents, the volunteers work to quickly spread the word, knocking on doors and contacting nearby schools. If an arrest occurs, they track down the family and connect them with legal resources.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚾🏈🏀
- Rizzo returns: Former Cubs great Anthony Rizzo is retiring from playing and rejoining the organization as an ambassador, the Cubs announced.
- Williams must improve: With everything he needs to succeed, Bears QB Caleb Williams can’t play as poorly as he did against the Vikings, writes Jason Lieser.
- Cardoso comes into her own: Sky center Kamilla Cardoso has kept a low profile during her career, but her play is becoming too dominant to ignore.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Grad student is running down every block in the city — and he’s already halfway done
Reporting by Selena Kuznikov
When Joabe Bayer Barbosa went on a hike in March 2024, he slipped and fell down a New England mountain, sustaining injuries and becoming frostbitten and hypothermic. Months after his rescue and hospitalization drew headlines, the 25-year-old graduate student took up running as a way to recover.
He moved to Chicago, and now the former collegiate athlete is trying to run the entire city of Chicago, block by block, by next spring.
After about a year, he’s already more than half done — traversing more than 4,000 miles in the process. He believes if he finishes, he’ll be the first to have done so. A local runners group also says it knows of no one who has.
Originally from Brazil, Barbosa is now a clinical psychology doctoral student at Roosevelt University. He moved to the United States when he was 17 to play soccer at Georgetown College in Kentucky.
“I started running, and then I discovered that it’s really boring,” Barbosa said. “It’s repetitive, seeing the same things and all that. So that’s when I thought, ‘I’m just gonna try to go to different [Chicago] neighborhoods, see different things.'”
WATCH: MAN TRIES RUNNING EVERY STREET IN CHICAGO ▶️
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What Chicago city job do you think deserves more recognition? Tell us why.
Email us (please include your first and last name). To see the answers to this question, check Friday’s Morning Edition newsletter.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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