Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: “Can I see mommy?” That’s the question Crystal Salter’s 7-year-old daughter asked after police said Salter was fatally shot by her boyfriend while snuggling at home with her two young children.
🗞️ Plus: Neighbors pan plan to swap the White Sox for Amtrak, a new candidate for governor and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs lost to the Brewers, 4-3; the White Sox fell to the Pirates, 9-3.
📧 Subscribe: Get our morning newsletter delivered to your inbox weekday mornings.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER 🌧️
Showers with a high near 78.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Mom fatally shot snuggling in bed with her 2 daughters, police say
Reporting by Mohammad Samra
Mother killed: Crystal Salter, 42, was snuggling in bed with her two young children at her home when relatives and authorities say she was fatally shot by her boyfriend. A couple of hours later, Salter’s boyfriend was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
She helped others: Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Juliana, Salter had conquered a drug addiction and had spent the past few years helping others on their sobriety journeys. She adopted her other daughter, Legacy, after the child’s mother checked out of a women’s treatment center and disappeared. Salter had dreams of one day opening a women’s shelter, her family said.
‘Can I see mommy?’: Juliana, 7, is now under her aunt’s care, Regina, Salter’s younger sister, while Legacy, also 7, is staying with other family. Regina Salter says Juliana is struggling since her mother’s slaying. “Can I see my mommy? I want to see my mommy. I want to go home,” Juliana will plead, Regina Salter said. “I just have to go in one room and cry … because there’s no love like a mother’s love,” Regina Salter said.
STADIUM SAGA 🏟️
Plan to swap Sox for Amtrak panned by officials, Bridgeport residents
Reporting by Violet Miller
Stadium pitch: White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia’s company, Canal Edge LLC, has proposed a mixed-use development called The Railyards that would be built where an Amtrak railyard now operates near the Chicago River. The ballpark, which would be across the river from the Chicago Fire’s new stadium at The 78, would be privately financed, a source told the Sun-Times. But there would be an ask for public funding for local infrastructure.
Railroad plans: Amtrak has said more than $600 million in federal funds is earmarked for building a new maintenance facility at the current site of a Union Pacific railyard in Bridgeport, near Rate Field. That project is also being partly financed by Ishbia’s company.
Neighbors say no: More than 100 people gathered outside Rate Field on Tuesday to decry a plan that would essentially swap the Sox for an Amtrak maintenance facility in their neighborhood. In recent months, a coalition has formed around addressing the environmental and economic impact a Sox stadium move and expanded Amtrak presence would have on the area.
FOOD SCENE 🍽️
Couple was poised to open a new bistro. Then the city closed their street
Reporting by Ambar Colón
Surprise shutdown: The owners of Gunny’s Pub have been gearing up to open their new bar and bistro on Sept. 16 at 2642 N Lincoln Ave in Lincoln Park. Then the city surprised them last month by shutting down their street until October. Now, Gunny’s is in an uneasy position for a new restaurant, with an opening date and a full menu of Midwestern supper club staples.
Come anyway: With the street closure complicating the opening, wife-husband co-owners Mary Nedbalski and Marty O’Connor have taken to social media to humorously explain their plight. They’re hoping that neighbors will walk or bike over to their restaurant. “The road might be closed, but the neighborhood certainly isn’t,” O’Connor said.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Independent governor candidate: Collin Corbett, a fiscal conservative who supports abortion rights and opposes much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, says there’s a middle ground in the rematch between Gov. JB Pritzker and GOP challenger Darren Bailey.
- Man shoved off moving train: Authorities said they are looking for three attackers after a CTA passenger was shoved off a moving Red Line train and landed on the electrified third rail Monday afternoon. The death marked the ninth homicide of Labor Day weekend.
- Bill could make gunmakers pay: A first-of-its-kind state law would force gun manufacturers to pay for a portion of the financial toll of gun violence in Illinois, an estimated $20 billion each year that includes costs like medical care and funeral expenses.
- Legislative watchdog resigns: Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey is resigning in the wake of complaints over his handling of sexual harassment investigations that have roiled Springfield.
- Smithsonian head to step down: Lonnie Bunch III will step down from his post as the secretary of the Smithsonian, following a year of efforts by President Donald Trump to influence portrayals of U.S. history. Bunch, who previously led the Chicago History Museum, became the first Black person and first historian appointed to the top Smithsonian position.
- City’s next read: The Chicago Public Library announced its next citywide read will be Samantha Harvey’s “Orbital,” as part of the city’s One Book, One Chicago reading program. The plot follows six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard a space station.
SHARE YOUR STORY 🗣️
Friday will mark 25 years since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and we want to hear from you about how that day changed your life. What’s different now for you in your daily life and how you view the world?
We want to hear your stories as we report on Chicagoans 25 years after 9/11.
Let us know what has changed for you by filling out this form. Please include contact information if you’d be willing to speak with one of our reporters.
BEARING THE BLITZ 🔉
One year ago, federal immigration agents landed in the Chicago area to launch Operation Midway Blitz, President Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration campaign.
In this special, 30-minute audio documentary, “Bearing Witness to the Blitz,” WBEZ and Sun-Times journalists Chip Mitchell, Ashlee Rezin, Mariah Woelfel and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad reflect on some of the key moments of Operation Midway Blitz and the lingering effects of the sweeping enforcement operation today.
Tap above to listen.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Physicians’ work in Gaza: “American Doctor” follows a group of American physicians who volunteered in Gaza hospitals. One of the physicians and a Chicago-based film producer join the show to discuss the project.
- Printers Row Lit Fest: The two-day Printers Row Lit Fest, the largest free literary event in the Midwest, kicks off this weekend. WBEZ’s arts and culture reporter Courtney Kueppers stops by to preview.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- How do you enjoy poetry in Chicago? What is the one poem you keep returning to, the poem that reaches off the page to speak with you as if it’s an old friend offering sage advice? Guests and callers weigh in.
FROM THE PRESS BOX 🏈⚽⚾🏀
- High school sports: Homewood-Flossmoor has alleged a second racist incident involving Lincoln-Way East over the weekend after a girls cross country meet, saying it plans to pursue legal action against Lincoln-Way East following an initial incident at a football game Friday.
- Messi vs. Lewandowski: The soccer spotlight will be on Chicago today with Robert Lewandowski and the Fire set to host Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.
- What’s the Matas? Is the Bulls’ Matas Buzelis almost a forgotten man? It feels that way, argues Joe Cowley.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: EDM fest that took place in Union Park last weekend
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
ARC Music Fest brings ‘house home’ with local and international DJs
Reporting by Brittany Sowacke
ARC Music Festival came booming to life last weekend with the sounds of DJs thundering across the 13 acres of Union Park. LED lights flickered across the park, welcoming fans to see the likes of international artists and local mainstays like Chicago’s own DJ Virago.
ARC’s tagline is “Where house comes home,” and fittingly, Chicago had a strong influence on this year’s lineup, which included Mike Dunn, an Englewood native and a pioneer of house music; South Side-born Honey Dijon; and Lil Louis of “French Kiss” fame. DJ Hiroko Yamamura, who has performed at ARC every year since its creation, said she attends the festival outside of her set and enjoys spending as much time as possible seeing other performers.
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
A woman views “Lydia at a Tapestry Frame” at the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Mary Cassatt exhibition on Monday.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Thanks for reading the Sun-Times Morning Edition!
Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Satchel Price