Good morning, Chicago.
Thousands of Chicago police officers received an unwelcome letter from their pension fund this week: thanks to a payroll error spurred by officers’ latest contract, approximately 3,000 are required to cut a check to their pension fund, plus interest.
The Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, which represents most rank-and-file cops, said it planned on filing a grievance over the error so that the city would have to pay that interest charge instead of workers.
The flub is hitting Tier 2 members of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, those who started working for the CPD on or after January 1, 2011. Those members make up roughly half of the more than 12,000 active members of the fund. Sworn officers contribute 9% of their salary to their pension, which is automatically withdrawn from paychecks.
PABF, in a letter to members, said the error was because of a “fiscal year discrepancy” with the city.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s A.D. Quig and Jeremy Gorner.
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Ex-Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, exits the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on June 5, 2024, following a post-trial motions hearing for acquittal in his corruption trial which ended in December. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)
Feds want 10 years in prison for ex-Ald. Edward Burke, saying he was ‘no novice’ when it came to corruption
The sentence requested by the U.S. attorney’s office would mean that Burke could very well die in prison. But it’s a punishment prosecutors say is warranted, given the “mountain” of evidence in the case — including hundreds of undercover recordings — that captured Burke in his own words and make it “obvious that Burke was no novice when it came to corruption.”
Israeli soldiers move near the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, June 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
UN Security Council adopts a cease-fire resolution aimed at ending Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
The resolution — which was approved overwhelmingly with 14 of the 15 Security Council members voting in favor and Russia abstaining — calls on Israel and Hamas “to fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”
Lashawn Ezell, 37, from left, Charles Johnson, 40, and Larod Styles, 37, members of the so-called Marquette Four, join with many of the attorneys who helped to have their convictions vacated on Feb. 15, 2017. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
Historic $50 million settlement for false confessions forced by Chicago police
Chicago aldermen are set to consider the city’s largest police misconduct settlement ever: a $50 million deal for four men imprisoned after detectives allegedly forced their false confessions as teens.
The hefty sum would go to the four who were originally convicted in a 1995 double murder. The men were arrested and tried as teens and spent half their lives in prison, but were exonerated in 2017 and certified as innocent after new fingerprinting technology did not connect them to the scene.
DePaul University adjunct professor Anne d’Aquino speaks to reporters with pro-Palestinian demonstrators standing behind her outside the North Side university’s quad, June 6, 2024. (Jessica Ma/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
DePaul University dismisses biology professor after assignment tied to Israel-Hamas war
DePaul University said it dismissed a part-time biology instructor after she gave an optional assignment related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Anne d’Aquino told students in May that they could write about the impact of “genocide in Gaza on human health and biology.” The theme of the spring class at the Chicago school was how microorganisms cause disease.
A memorial outside the home of Jayden Perkins, 11, who was stabbed to death in his home on March 13. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)
Judge allows prosecutors to use interview of 5-year-old younger brother of Jayden Perkins with details of brutal stabbing
Cook County prosecutors will be allowed to present statements made by the younger brother of Jayden Perkins hours after the 11-year-old boy was brutally stabbed, a judge ruled Monday, bringing into the trial that the 5-year-old boy told a child advocacy interviewer his mother’s ex-boyfriend “savaged” his mother and brother.
The video-recorded interview captured heartbreaking statements from the boy on the day his brother was killed and his pregnant mother was seriously injured in their Edgewater apartment, according to court filings, offering more details about the attack that drew sympathy and outrage for the family and raised questions about the handling of domestic violence cases. The alleged attacker was released from prison just a day before the killing.
Dr. Mary Mulcahey speaks with patient Mary Pat Larocca about her knee during an appointment, May 30, 2024, at Loyola Medicine in Maywood. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
New Loyola Medicine program offers specific treatment plans to female athletes
When Faith Comas started wrestling in high school, she was one of just two girls on her team. The 18-year-old Cicero teen, who has dreams of wrestling in college, said that often meant everyone supporting her through her sport –– teammates, coaches and trainers –– was male.
“When I got hurt a couple years ago, we had a male physical therapist, and he was really lax about it,” Comas said. “He just told me I’m ‘good to go.’ Having an environment for women would’ve been a lot more comfortable and better for healing the injury long term.”
Dr. Mary Mulcahey, director of sports medicine and an orthopedic surgeon at Loyola Medicine, said stories like Faith’s were what inspired her to help launch a new program to provide health care for female athletes.
Cubs pitcher Hayden Wesneski throws against the Braves in the fifth inning at Wrigley Field on May 23, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Column: Trio of young pitchers must adjust on the fly to shifting roles if Chicago Cubs want to contend
The development of Ben Brown, Hayden Wesneski and Jordan Wicks could be one of the more important pieces of the pitching puzzle this summer for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, writes Paul Sullivan.
All three young pitchers have bright futures as major-league starters, but with the Cubs rotation set in the first four slots, adjustments have been made for the good of the team.
Women light candles at the “Our Lady of Athletes” chapel inside the Madeleine church, May 30, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
In secular France, chaplains prepare to provide Olympians with spiritual support during the Games
Ordained and lay representatives from the five major global religions — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism — have been working together for months to set up a shared hall in the Olympic village outside Paris.
There, they will provide some worship services, prayers and, above all, a non-judgmental listening ear to any athletes or staff in need, regardless of faith.
Hosts Richard Blais, left, Nyesha Arrington, Amanda Freitag and Marcus Samuelsson walk the red carpet while attending the James Beard Foundation Awards at the Lyric Opera House on June 10, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Lula Cafe is Chicago’s sole James Beard Restaurant and Chef award winner for 2024
Lula Cafe won in the Outstanding Hospitality category. Other local nominated chefs included Sujan Sarkar of Indienne, Jenner Tomaska of Esmé and Anna Posey of Elske.
Ribfest will not be happening this year, according to the president of the Exchange Club of Naperville. It was held at the DuPage County fairgrounds in Wheaton in 2022 and 2023 and previously was a summer staple at Naperville’s Knoch Knolls Park. (NCTV17)
No Ribfest this year, Exchange Club of Naperville president says
Ribfest started in 1988 as a small community festival centered on ribs. Over the years, it grew to attract thousands, enticing visitors from all over the Chicago area and beyond to indulge in the slow-cooked revelry as well as a whole host of other attractions, including concerts by well-known performers.
Madison Hill, Christina Gorman and Ashley Neal in “The Singularity Play” by Jackalope Theatre at Berger Park Cultural Center. (Matthew Gregory Hollis)
Review: ‘The Singularity Play’ by Jackalope at Berger Park unleashes AI terror on theater people
At one point in “The Singularity Play,” the best drama Tribune theater critic Chris Jones has yet seen about the terror that the rise of artificial intelligence should and does strike in the heart of all sentient creative professionals, a character named Denise has something of a tantrum. Everyone knows she is well prepared, having boned up on every play ever written in the English language. but then she takes it a lot further.
“I’m writing from my imagination,” she defiantly declares. “I am an artist.”
