Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: In an economy run on diesel, fuel hikes will cost consumers, experts say.
🗞️ Plus: How recent college graduates are navigating the job market, the legal battle triggered by West Suburban Medical Center’s closure and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs lost to the Pirates, 2-1; the White Sox bested the Twins, 3-1.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌤️
Partly sunny with a high near 86.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Diesel fuel prices squeeze truckers, farmers, companies — but shoppers will also pay price
By Mariah Rush
Price check: Diesel prices in Illinois and the Chicago area hit an all-time high less than three months after the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in February. While most consumers can find ways to cut back on gasoline, it’s harder to escape the impact of diesel’s record-breaking prices.
Cause and effect: Experts say diesel powers the U.S. economy, from trains to tractors and trucks via the transportation, shipping, farming and logistics industries. So the rise in diesel prices will mean a rise in costs for consumers.
Zooming in: Ricardo Guerrero arrives in the Loop every day about 5:30 a.m. to run his three food trucks, all serving authentic Mexican food. The growing price of diesel fuel, and even gasoline, has forced him to spend hundreds of dollars more per week in order to continue serving food. Guerrero said he raised his trucks’ food prices by about 10% since the war began, but he doesn’t want to increase prices further.
JOBS 💵
How recent college grads navigate brutal job market
By Mary Norkol
Market outlook: This year’s college graduates are entering a job market marred by rising unemployment and the replacement of some entry-level jobs with artificial intelligence. To that end, recent grads say they’ve grown used to being “ghosted” by employers, having their application tossed aside by an AI screener or beaten out by a more experienced candidate for an entry-level job.
In their words: The Sun-Times spoke with three college graduates from the class of 2026 about how they’re changing up their plans and vying for job offers. “It felt like I did everything right, and still nothing’s coming of it, and that’s incredibly demoralizing,” one Northwestern University grad said.
HEALTH ❤️
West Suburban Medical Center’s closure triggers legal battle among owners
By Kaitlin Washburn
Legal foes: The business partners who together bought West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park have now become legal foes, battling for control of the hospital in Cook County court. Resilience Healthcare chief executive officer Manoj Prasad and the hospital’s landlord, Rathnakar Reddy Patlola, sued each other last month. Patlola wants a judge to appoint a receiver, a neutral third party, to help wrestle management of the hospital from Prasad.
Shutdown history: Prasad abruptly closed the Oak Park institution in late March and furloughed most of its employees. He also shut down Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown last summer after it was stripped of Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Neighborhood impact: Residents on the West Side and in the near west suburbs have lost one of the few safety net hospitals in that area. Others nearby — like Rush Oak Park Hospital, Community First Medical Center in Portage Park and Loretto Hospital in Austin — have been left to plug the gap.
PUBLIC SAFETY 🚨
- Holiday weekend violence: As of Monday night, the city was on track to have the fewest fatal shootings over a Memorial Day weekend in at least 16 years. The sole fatality was a toddler who shot himself.
- 5 officers hurt: Mayor Brandon Johnson decried what he called an early Sunday morning “unauthorized large gathering” apparently involving teens that ended with a car veering into and injuring five Chicago police officers as they dispersed the crowd on the Near West Side.
- Arrest in shooting of politician’s dad: An 18-year-old remains jailed on charges connected to the shooting of former Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s father in North Lawndale earlier this year.
- Health chief out: Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige is out after Mayor Johnson asked for her resignation, a source told the Sun-Times.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Anti-war protest: Dozens of veterans and supporters participated in an anti-war Memorial Day march in the Loop, protesting ongoing U.S. military action around the globe.
- Veteran firefighter mourned: Loved ones and fellow first responders gathered Friday for the funeral of Steven M. Decker, who died May 14 during a training exercise after 30 years with the Chicago Fire Department. “He would give you the shirt off his back,” one firefighter said.
- Fed cases under review: Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros confirmed an “ongoing” review of grand jury presentations by his office that might have been tainted like in the case of the “Broadview Six,” which derailed last week amid revelations of apparent prosecutorial misconduct.
- Rebuild Chicago 2.0: Rebuild 2.0, an expansion of the city’s program that targets abandoned homes to give them a second life, identifies homes that can be acquired, rehabbed and sold to create homeownership opportunities on the South and West sides.
- Homes back on Zillow: A federal judge last Friday partially granted Zillow’s temporary restraining order against Lisle-based Midwest Real Estate Data, allowing for the immediate restoration of Chicago-area listing data on the company’s real estate platforms.
- Robins in decline: The songbird’s numbers appear to be dropping in the Chicago region and throughout much of the country. Experts say it’s another sign many birds in North America are in trouble.
- $20M gift for Lyric: Lyric Opera of Chicago received the donation from the Illinois-based Negaunee Foundation to expand educational programming and make Mozart a permanent fixture on the Downtown stage.
MUST-READ COMMENTARY 🗣️
- Frank Main: More than a century ago, my missionary great-grandfather lived in a summer home in Kuliang, a town that’s become a symbol of cultural ties between the U.S. and China — and is close to the heart of China’s President Xi Jinping.
- Neil Steinberg: Ahmed Abdul Majeed has received no response from the government of Saudi Arabia, which he believes has wronged him. He is not giving up.
- Zindy Marquez: America’s shameful retreat from racial reckoning comes six years after George Floyd’s murder.
- Rich Miller: Safety net hospitals and programs for homeless Illinoisans could face cuts by the state.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Insurance rates: Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers want to clamp down on spikes to residents’ home insurance costs. Abe Scarr of Illinois PIRG and Kevin Martin of the Illinois Insurance Association discuss.
- Memory cafes: More than 7 million people in the U.S. currently live with Alzheimer’s disease. Memory cafes are free events where caregivers and their loved ones with dementia can socialize together. Susan Frick of Dementia Friendly Illinois, Molly Conley of Dementia Friendly Lincoln Park Memory Cafe and Robert Contino, a memory cafe participant, all explain.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- Festivals, yay or nay?: From music to food, the season for summer festivals is back. WBEZ’s Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis and callers weigh in on favorites — and what there may be to hate about this time of year.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈🏀⚾
- Megaproject bill analysis: Proposed property tax legislation intended to keep the Bears from moving to Indiana might maintain local pride, but perhaps not at a price worth it for the average Illinois homeowner, a new report from the Cook County Treasurer’s office suggests.
- Sky hopes: The team is banking on better ball movement to revive a wavering offense.
- Sox debut: Rikuu Nishida is remaining humble despite his successful debut with the White Sox on Monday.
- No calls for coach: Ex-Cubs skipper David Ross isn’t getting calls to manage again, which he reconciles as part of the business.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 2D: Extend, like a zoned parking permit.
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Fans flock to Pokémon Fossil Museum, the Field’s new exhibit
By Stefano Esposito
Pokémon Fossil Museum opened Thursday at the Field Museum and runs through April 2027. It’s a collaboration between the Field, the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, and The Pokémon Company International.
In the exhibit, oddly pristine “fossil” creations from the fantastical Pokémon universe sit next to the Field’s crustier equivalents. Field officials say they see the exhibit as an opportunity to draw in budding young scientists.
“It’s a great way to work with Pokémon to get people really interested in paleontology. And in many ways, dinosaurs are the gateway to science,” said Julian Siggers, the Field Museum’s president and CEO.
The exhibit is conveniently color-coded: Blue for information about Pokémon, red for real-world fossils.
In Pokémon Fossil Museum, the Field has succeeded in getting people through the gateway. The Field’s website was temporarily overwhelmed in March when fans tried to book tickets.
Several of the kids the Sun-Times interviewed on the exhibit’s opening day were mightily impressed.
“Pretty much five stars,” said Lincoln Frame, 11, of Valparaiso, Indiana.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
What advice do you have for recent college graduates entering the job market?
Respond here with your answer (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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