Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Mayoral candidates are decrying Chicago’s violence, even as summer murders have hit a 61-year low and overall violent crime continues to decline.
🗞️ Plus: A battle over new lakefront development brews, Manny’s Deli is honored and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs fell to the Brewers, 9-4; the White Sox beat the Astros, 5-1.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
- Heat advisory: Today is expected to be sunny with a high near 94 and heat index values as high as 103. Another heat advisory will be in effect from noon to 9 p.m.
- The wave explained: Though hot Septembers are not new, this heat wave might feel hotter for a few reasons, including a warmer-than-normal July and corn sweat, explains the Sun-Times’ Amy Yee in her latest.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
City sees fewest summer murders since 1965
Reporting by Chip Mitchell
Chicago today: Chicago had 122 murders in June, July and August, according to city and police data posted through Tuesday evening. That’s the lowest summer total since 1965. Overall violent crime hit its lowest level last year in more than four decades. City data shows the downward trend has continued this year.
Mayor claims credit: Mayor Brandon Johnson links the improved numbers to his selection of Larry Snelling as police superintendent, Chicago’s focus on CTA safety and its investments in community violence intervention and youth summer jobs.
Candidates’ spin: Despite the historically low levels of violent crime, candidates trying to replace Johnson are sweeping aside the numbers in favor of anecdotes and are depicting the city as reeling in a “crisis” of gun violence and lawlessness.
How do Chicagoans feel?: Former Ald. Dick Simpson, a retired University of Illinois Chicago political scientist, said many residents still don’t feel like they’re completely safe. “It will still be an issue about whether or not enough is being done to prevent crime,” he said.
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU 🗣️
With historically low levels of violent crime in Chicago this year, do you feel safe in your community? Tell us why or why not.
Reply here. Please include your first and last name and neighborhood or ward, if you feel comfortable. We may run your answer in a future Morning Edition newsletter or in a roundup of responses to this question in print and online.
EDUCATION 🍎
Judge to decide what happens to money from sale of taxpayer-funded school
Reporting by Sarah Karp
Initial plan: After Aspira of Illinois declared bankruptcy in June, the nonprofit listed a building constructed with $27 million in taxpayer funds that housed one of its closed charter schools. In court records, the nonprofit indicated that it planned to use money from the sale to pay off debt and continue operating with whatever was left.
Judge steps in: Last week, an attorney for the nonprofit told a judge that Aspira will, instead, put money from the sale aside and wait on the court to decide where it should go. Exactly how much money Aspira could walk away with is unclear. Chicago Public Schools sent an attorney to the hearing, indicating the school district is ready to make a case it should get some, if not all, of the remaining money.
Key context: These latest developments in Aspira’s bankruptcy case come after WBEZ and the Sun-Times published an article questioning whether Aspira could pocket money from the sale. What happens in this case could set a precedent for what happens to assets purchased with public funds when private operators close charter schools in Illinois. CPS has been criticized for not going after the assets of closed charters in the past, but it appears the district is stepping in now.
POLITICS ✶
Boeing’s image is bruised, but company’s campaign money is still good with pols
Reporting by Robert Herguth
Boeing backstory: Long headquartered in Chicago, the aerospace and defense contractor Boeing Co. has faced repeated allegations in recent years that it has put the pursuit of profits over passenger safety in building and designing aircraft — including the troubled 737 MAX.
Money still good: None of that has stopped Illinois politicians from accepting campaign money from Boeing, with eight members of Congress from Illinois and Northwest Indiana taking money from the company’s political action committee since the start of last year.
PUBLIC SAFETY 🚨
- Mass shooting was ‘somewhat targeted’: That’s according to interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller, who said that Saturday’s shooting, which killed one man and wounded 14 people, likely involved multiple shooters and an exchange of gunfire. As the investigation continues, the city has opened a resource center for those affected by violence.
- The president weighs in: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed back on President Donald Trump’s critique of Chicago’s “unchecked” levels of violence — instead blaming the president for gutting anti-violence programs.
- Family questions Gary shooting: Kenneth Williams Sr., 67, was fatally shot during gunfire from six Gary, Indiana, police officers and three Lake County Indiana sheriff’s deputies while he worked a security guard shift last Friday, authorities said.
- CTA sued after fatal stabbing: The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of Dominique Pollion’s grandmother, alleges the CTA and its private security guards failed to keep Pollion safe when he was killed on the Blue Line in January.
- Chicagoan dies of West Nile virus: The person is among the first two human cases this year in Chicago, the city’s department of health announced Tuesday.
- Flock flak in the suburbs: Several suburban municipalities, including Homer Glen and West Chicago, are reviewing the use of Flock cameras and placing cops on leave amid a growing trend of alleged police abuse of the vast surveillance system.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Bid to buy bank raises concerns: Consumer advocacy groups and the state’s top law enforcement official are opposing Opportunity Financial’s plan to obtain a national bank charter, arguing the move would allow it to lock customers into loans at more than 100% interest rate.
- Battle over Edgewater property: A proposal to transform Emanuel Congregation’s lakefront site into a mixed-use development with a new synagogue is riling neighbors. Supporters say the plan will provide much needed housing, while others want stronger lakefront protections.
- Remembering Jim Ruddle: A longtime Chicago TV news anchor known for his intelligence and ability to cut to the heart of a story, Mr. Ruddle died Aug. 27 at age 94.
THEATER 🎭
Heir to a revolutionary past, playwright and author Zayd Ayers Dohrn charts his own path
Reporting by Stefano Esposito
Accepting the past: Zayd Ayers Dohrn, 49, has come to accept as “inevitable” that anyone writing about him will dust off the exploits of his parents, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, a militant leftist group that went to war with the U.S. government in the 1960s and early ’70s. His mother was at one point on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list.
Charting his path: Despite his mom’s hopes that he would follow in her revolutionary footsteps, Dohrn became a writer and an academic at Northwestern University who still struggles with how his parents were willing to risk everything — including tearing the family apart — to fulfill their radical ambitions. He lays bare those feelings in “Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, & Young,” Dohrn’s memoir about his parents and the family’s life as fugitives, published in May.
New play: Dohrn explores his ambivalence toward so-called hate speech on university campuses in his new play, “The Humanities,” which opens Sept. 13 at Victory Gardens Theater, and deals with the fallout after a controversial speaker is invited to lecture at an elite university.
WATCH: PANDAN IN CHICAGO ▶️
Pandan has become a go-to ingredient for several local restaurants. Tap above to see visual journalist Zubaer Khan and reporter Erica Thompson across the city to see how pandan has taken root on menus here.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Heat diagnoses: New research points to a growing number of diagnoses related to extreme heat. A medical researcher talks about these new findings and how they can improve how hospitals care for patients as extreme heat events become more frequent.
- Chicago Jazz Fest: This year’s fest kicks off Thursday at Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center. Heather Ireland Robinson of the Jazz Institute of Chicago and award-winning musician Isaiah Collier join the show to discuss.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- Is it time to take a year off?: Callers weigh in on the pros and cons of gap years and sabbaticals.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚾🏀
- Caleb Williams looks forward: With a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar contract in reach, the Bears QB said he still wants to make sure the team keeps winning, saying money is “not a motivating factor.”
- Pham returns: Tommy Pham is looking to “prove everyone wrong” in his late-season reunion with White Sox.
- What’s next for Skylar Diggins?: The veteran point guard has been shut down for the season and remains under contract through 2027. But after a rough first year together, Diggins and the Sky have reason to reevaluate whether they want to run it back.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 9A: Adjective associated with both Chicago weather and Chicago politicians
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Paul Kahan, Manny’s Deli garner top 2027 Banchet honors
Reporting by Dorothy Hernandez
Chef Paul Kahan will receive the 2027 Culinary Excellence Award, and Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen will receive the 2027 Iconic Restaurant Award at the 25th Banchet Awards, the city’s top food honors, in January.
Kahan, partner and executive chef of One Off Hospitality Group, which includes Avec, The Publican, Big Star and Dove’s Luncheonette, said in a statement he’s “grateful to have played a small part in what makes this industry so special.”
Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen award comes after more than 80 years as a favorite among its devoted regulars, out-of-towners, politicians and power brokers.
“Manny’s has always been a place where everyone feels welcome and generations of families gather,” said Dan Raskin, fourth-generation owner-operator.
“This honor belongs to the generations of our family who came before us, our incredible employees, and the loyal customers who have made Manny’s what it is today,” Raskin said.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
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The Obama Foundation invited Chicagoans to come by the John Lewis Plaza last Friday to show off their tan suits, an homage to the ensemble President Barack Obama wore in 2014 that proved to be a cultural lightning rod.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Michael Lansu