Daywatch: The cost to fix Chicago's water mains
Good morning, Chicago.
Scores of water mains throughout Chicago are too close to sewer lines, according to a new report that cautions the potential risks to public health could cost taxpayers millions of dollars to fix.
In a six-page letter released yesterday, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg slammed the Department of Water Management for failing to ensure contractors complied with state and city regulations intended to prevent human and industrial waste from tainting drinking water.
Witzburg said experts told her investigators that the level of pressure maintained in underground water mains likely thwarted any contamination. But she urged the city to improve its communication with Chicagoans, in particular when sections of the system malfunction and boil orders are issued.
Read the full story from the Tribune's Michael Hawthorne.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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While Gov. JB Pritzker delivered a no-new-taxes, belt-tightening spending proposal for Illinois, the prospective presidential contender spoke to a larger, national audience by likening the actions of President Donald Trump and his followers to the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.
Painting a brighter picture of the state's finances than his administration had last year, when a $3.2 billion budget hole was said to loom, Pritzker's $55.2 billion plan for the year beginning July 1 includes required funding increases for schools and pension contributions. But the proposal keeps spending flat in most other areas, including programs favored by the second-term Democrat and his allies in the General Assembly.
American Airlines is planning to boost flying capacity out of O'Hare International Airport this year, marking a departure from the airline's pullback at its Chicago hub in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The carrier will fly to nine new domestic and international cities from Chicago in 2025 and use larger planes, American announced Thursday.
Indiana House legislators gave initial approval to a bill aimed at redrawing the Indiana-Illinois border Wednesday, but the bill continues to open up a Pandora's box of amendments — from marijuana legalization to allowing Indiana counties to secede.
Bill that places restrictions on Medicaid advances to Indiana House
Indiana House passes ban on transgender women participating in women's college sports
After years of litigation, Endeavor Health has settled the last batch of pending lawsuits filed by patients who allege they were sexually abused by former obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Fabio Ortega – bringing the total number of lawsuits the health system has settled over the matter to more than 75.
Read the investigation on sexual abuse by providers
The AIDS Foundation Chicago and two other nonprofits filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration, challenging executive orders related to diversity, equity and gender.
The AIDS Foundation Chicago, the National Urban League and the National Fair Housing Alliance filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to halt three recent executive orders.
After spending nearly six years in six courts, the legal battle between the Forest County Potawatomi Community of Wisconsin and the city of Waukegan is likely over after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit put an end to the last pending case.
Chicago Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga is excited about his first opening-day start, made more special by the fact it's at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
Former Illinois guard Terrence Shannon Jr. is trying to create something positive out of the school's upside-down banner mishap over the weekend.
As if Chicago didn't have enough problems. Here comes Godzilla, as in Gojira, the Big G, Tokyo's Own.
Apple has released a sleeker and more expensive version of its lowest priced iPhone in an attempt to widen the audience for a bundle of artificial intelligence technology that the company has been hoping will revive demand for its most profitable product lineup.
The iPhone 16e unveiled yesterday is the fourth-generation of a model that's sold at a dramatically lower price than the iPhone's standard and premium models.
Chicago first embraced this Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice irreverent Biblical creation with the help of some 500 performances from a bare-chested Donny Osmond back in the mid-1990s.
Any show that was so successful for so long in downtown Chicago that an Osmond was persuaded to move himself and his family to Wilmette is a piece of theater that deserves respect, writes Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.
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The move, widely condemned by his critics, follows Trump's federalization of the National Guard. Some 3,800 guardsmen have since been deployed in California against the objections of its government, spurring debate among legal observers over the limits of the president's power to send troops into American streets. Trump ordered the deployments in response to thousands of Angelenos who took to the streets on Friday in protests. LA residents responded after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out sweeping raids of local businesses, arresting, among others, dozens of day laborers who were vying for work outside a local Home Depot. Larger demonstrations soon formed and remained largely peaceful until residents were engaged by police with riot shields and crowd control weapons. Over the weekend, the clashes between police and protesters escalated across many neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. 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