As Chicago reeled from yet another mass shooting, this one Tuesday morning in the Englewood neighborhood, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the federal government to “step up” and help cities across America tackle gun violence.
After extending her condolences to the families of the four people killed and the four others wounded, Lightfoot said what Chicago needs is a partnership with Washington to stem the flow of illegal guns into the city. Though she didn’t elaborate, and while it is not yet clear whether illegal guns were involved in Tuesday’s shooting, she revived her demands for stricter gun control laws nationwide and said the type of heightened violence that has plagued the city recently is not unique to Chicago.
“This is a national problem, and it needs a national solution,” Lightfoot said during an unrelated news conference.
But when asked about how Chicago can safely reopen from the coronavirus pandemic with crime still present, the mayor balked and said, “The reality is our city is safe. And I stand by that.”
Illinois could become the first Midwest state to ban energy companies from burning coal to generate electricity, with the end of gas-fired power possibly to follow. Phasing out combustion fuels — coal by 2035 and gas a decade later — is a key element of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plans to move Illinois into a clean energy future, but he first needs to muscle his legislation through Springfield this week.
And on Monday, Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools selected the district’s interim CEO, turning to longtime educator José Torres, who was previously president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora and, before that, superintendent of Elgin-based District U-46.
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Lightfoot speaks with White House after at least 4 dead, 4 wounded in Englewood shooting
The Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Paige Fry, Jeremy Gorner and Gregory Pratt reported on at least the third mass shooting on the South Side in less than two weeks — and how the mayor responded as the city grapples with a spike in violence that began at the start of 2020.
The latest mass shooting, which happened in a residential building in the 6200 block of South Morgan Street around 5:40 a.m., left four people dead and four others hospitalized, Chicago police said. Lightfoot called the shooting “a tragedy that’s ripped apart families and inflicted intense trauma on several individuals.”
The mayor added that President Joe Biden’s administration reached out Tuesday morning following the mass shooting. She also said she spoke with several of her counterparts across the country regarding this weekend’s mass shooting in Austin, Texas, and she made a renewed plea for gun control. It’s an argument she makes frequently — as did her predecessors Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley.
“It tells us that we still have much work to do in our mission to end gun violence here in Chicago and in particular, to limit the access of individuals to illegal guns,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor often has blamed the surge in violent crime on the pandemic and its ripple effects, such as the court system being largely closed for many months. But critics question the city’s strategies and leadership. That has led to occasional tensions between the city and county criminal justice system, with more finger-pointing Tuesday as Lightfoot said she fundamentally disagrees with an analysis by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office that Chicago police are making too many “nonviolent” gun arrests of people without prior convictions.
“We are a city that’s awash in illegal guns,” Lightfoot said. “Those illegal guns cause deep pain and injury and death so the suggestion that somehow the Police Department is wasting its time arresting people who illegally possess firearms at the height of this crisis, I just fundamentally disagree with that.” More here.
Chicago police sergeant alleges commander sent officers to the block his home sits on during last year’s unrest, the Tribune’s Annie Sweeney and William Lee write.
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Pratt writes: “Lightfoot on Monday said a much-circulated email in which she berated an aide was ‘born out of frustration’ and she’s now in ‘a better place’ with her team.
“In late January, Lightfoot sent her then-scheduler an email complaining that she doesn’t get enough of what she called ‘office time.’ That’s typically a less structured part of the day when the mayor can think, write or make long-term plans.
“While it’s common for politicians to give staff members specific direction, it’s the way Lightfoot delivered her feedback that raised eyebrows in government and political circles. Lightfoot repeated several sentences — one 16 times — to highlight her displeasure over her schedule.
“‘I need office time everyday!’ Lightfoot wrote 16 times in a row in the email, which the Tribune obtained via an open records request.
“‘Not just once a week or some days, everyday!’ she wrote, 10 times.” More here.
Illinois, one of the nation’s largest producers of coal, is on the verge of becoming the first Midwest state to ban energy companies from burning the lung-damaging, climate-changing fossil fuel to generate electricity, my colleague Michael Hawthorne writes.
The end of gas-fired power might not be far behind.
Phasing out the combustion fuels — coal by 2035 and gas a decade later — is a key element of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plans to move Illinois into a clean energy future. If the Chicago Democrat can push his legislation through the General Assembly this week, new government requirements would speed up a transition to climate-friendly electric generation and transportation that already is embraced by some in the private sector.
Among other things, the bill would double the state’s commitment to renewable energy, with a goal of raising the amount of wind and solar power to 40% of the state’s electric generation by the end of the decade, up from 8% in 2019.
As a state Senate committee convened ahead of a full chamber session Tuesday, however, it was clear a deal had not yet been reached, and the bill remained a work in progress.
Rockton chemical fire could take 7 days to burn out, fire chief says, the Tribune’s Navya Gupta reports.
More than a month after Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson announced her departure from head of the third-largest school district in the U.S., longtime educator José Torres was tapped to steer the ship until Jackson’s permanent replacement is found, Pratt and the Tribune’s Hannah Leone report.
Lightfoot said Torres is not a candidate for the nationwide search for the permanent CEO.
Torres recently left the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora after more than six years as its president. Previously, he was superintendent of Elgin-based District U-46 — the second-largest school system in Illinois, following CPS — and served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, according to his IMSA biography, which also states he holds three degrees from the University of Maryland, including a doctorate in educational administration.
He will be at the helm of a school system that endured a two-week teachers strike in 2019 followed by a total shutdown of schools during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a protracted fight with the Chicago Teachers Union over subsequently reopening them.
Obama Foundation official to be nominated by President Joe Biden to lead AmeriCorps
Michael Smith, a youth programming director at the Obama Foundation and executive director of the former president’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, will be Biden’s nominee for CEO of the AmeriCorps service organization, the White House said Tuesday. He must be confirmed by the Senate.
Smith said in a tweet, “No matter where I go, the proudest title I will ever hold is my brother’s keeper. I have never been more optimistic about how this mantra that became a movement will continue to grow.”
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