Daywatch: What we know about Madigan jury deliberations
Good morning, Chicago.
The jurors in the landmark racketeering trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan and his longtime confidant deliberated for their first full day yesterday without reaching a verdict — though they should be all set on office supplies.
The jury of eight women and four men resumed deliberations at 9 a.m. and left the courthouse at 4:40 p.m., putting their total deliberation time at about nine hours since getting the case Wednesday afternoon.
Under their self-imposed schedule, the panel will return for more discussion at 10 a.m. today and call it a day at 3 p.m.
So far the only communication from the jurors has been about scheduling — and office supplies. Shortly before noon yesterday, they sent a note to the judge asking for more highlighters, sticky notes and white-out.
That followed requests on Wednesday for 'more pens and highlighters and tape' as well as 'at least five more copies of the indictment.'
'Apparently there is some kind of arts and crafts going on back there,' U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey quipped after reading yesterday's note. When another message from the jurors arrived later in the day, the judge joked that it would be a red flag only 'if they start asking for pipe cleaners and macaroni.'
Follow along with Tribune reporters in the courtroom while jurors deliberate.
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A midair collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot in the country's deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines regional jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
President Donald Trump said his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are coming tomorrow, but he's still considering whether to include oil from those countries as part of his import taxes.
Trump said his decision will be based on whether the price of oil charged by the two trading partners is fair, although the basis of his threatened tariffs pertains to stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of chemicals used for fentanyl.
Walgreens Boots Alliance announced that it is suspending its practice of paying cash dividends to stockholders.
The change comes amid struggles for the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy giant. Walgreens announced plans in October to shutter 1,200 stores over the next three years, including in Chicago. Walgreens has been cutting costs for years, including through layoffs in Illinois and other locations.
A federal lawsuit filed earlier this month alleges one of the main firms involved in managing the construction of the Obama Presidential Center racially discriminated against one of the project's African-American owned local subcontractors, leaving them $40 million in the red and at risk of bankruptcy.
But the company in charge of engineering and professional design services for the center pointed the finger right back, saying in an attached memo that construction costs and delays 'were all unequivocally driven by the underperformance and inexperience' of that subcontractor, II in One.
The fight over the future of hemp in Chicago moved to the City Council yesterday, weeks after a push by Mayor Brandon Johnson helped block state legislation to strictly license, tax and regulate the often high-inducing products.
As aldermen sparred in a council committee meeting alongside dueling hemp sellers and marijuana dispensary owners, the council appeared far from agreement on the safety and fairness of potential local regulations — despite all sides agreeing that the unregulated product that can get users high must face some restrictions.
Pedro Martinez, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said yesterday he 'can't even imagine the need' for the Chicago Teachers Union to go on strike, saying the two sides are on the way to reaching an agreement amid contentious negotiations.
'Any work stoppage would only disrupt our children's learning, and given how close together the sides are, it wouldn't make any sense to do something so drastic,' Martinez said at the January Board of Education meeting.
CPS CEO addresses ICE mixup at elementary school last week
In a move that could make them some of the first undergraduate student workers to unionize in Illinois, resident advisers at the University of Illinois at Chicago filed for union representation yesterday.
The undergraduates filed for representation with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 39, a Madison, Wisconsin-based labor union that represents workers in nonprofits and health care and at universities. Union organizers said more than 85% of the 170 undergraduate housing staff workers at UIC had signed union cards.
The skaters who died Wednesday were those trying to join the future elite, writes Philip Hersh. They were among 150 athletes from the sport's lower competitive levels who had been invited to a national development camp that took place Monday and Tuesday.
They are mourned not just because they were young and talented. They are mourned because to anyone associated with the sport, they are part of the family.
14 from 'close-knit' figure skating community killed in crash, with 6 of them from Boston club
Dick Button, Olympic great and voice of skating, dies at 95
For the second year in a row, the NBA All-Star Game will not feature a player from the Chicago Bulls.
Zach LaVine — a two-time All-Star in 2021 and '22 — was passed over Thursday for a reserve spot in the Eastern Conference despite ranking 10th in the East in scoring (24 points per game) and shooting 51.1% from the field and 44.6% from 3-point range.
It's early yet. Dennis Allen barely has his new office settled at Halas Hall. So it's difficult for the 52-year-old coach to deliver a concrete vision of what his Chicago Bears defense might look like in 2025.
But Allen does know what he's after and how he likes his units to operate. So it was little surprise Thursday when the new Bears defensive coordinator offered up two qualities he is certain will be part of the M.O. going forward: Attacking. Aggressive. No questions asked.
Head-to-head fighting games were born in the heyday of American arcade culture in the '90s and there were competitions even then — usually meetups at the local bowling alley or arcade or basement. Now they take the form of a double-elimination bracket played at a conference center.
Also around the area this weekend, the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show lands in Rosemont and a concert by pop band MICHELLE.
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Newsweek
34 minutes ago
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GOP Congressman: U.S. Tax Sovereignty Under Threat
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American Military News
39 minutes ago
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Trump mulls using defense powers to fund rare-Earth projects
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Yahoo
an hour ago
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Obscure Chinese stock scams dupe American investors by the thousands
Braden Lindstrom had only dabbled in investing when he was encouraged by someone impersonating a financial adviser to buy shares in a small Chinese company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A few clicks later, he was on his way to being scammed out of $80,000. Lindstrom, a college professor in Utah, invested in Jayud Global Logistics (JYD), a small Chinese shipping company whose price rose for months, then crashed 96%, just after Americans like him were told to buy it. Wall Street veterans say the pattern has been repeated dozens of times in recent years, and feeds on tiny Chinese stocks that are vulnerable to manipulation and easily bought by U.S. investors. Red vs. Blue Is Dividing Stock Portfolios Like Never Before How to Say No at Work America's Last Mall King Is Still in Charge, Even After a Deadly Diagnosis Southwest Airlines Adds Cockpit Alerts to Boost Runway Safety 'Why Am I Doing This?' These Investors Are Locking In Stock Gains While They Can. 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The investors are duped into believing the company is on the verge of something big, perceptions that are reinforced by short-term gains in share prices engineered through manipulative trading. The sellers are often a ring of traders who bought the stock at much cheaper prices, sometimes directly from the companies, and want to dump it on the unsuspecting victims. Nearly 60 China-based companies have conducted initial public offerings on Nasdaq since 2020 that each raised $15 million or less. More than one-third have experienced sudden one-day price drops of 50% or more over the past two years, according to FactSet data. Another 17 listed companies based in Hong Kong have lost half of their market value in a single day. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority warned in 2022 that small IPOs involving such companies were often a prelude to fraud. Such offerings were supposed to broadly market shares to new investors. But they could instead be placed with insiders or affiliates of the company, and manipulative trading often appeared soon after the IPOs, according to Finra. 'We're seeing this across the landscape,' said Bryan Smith, a senior vice president for complex investigations at Finra, which supervises stock brokerages. One recent criminal case, involving China Liberal Education Holdings, illustrates how an alleged fraud occurs. China Liberal, which said it ran international-study programs for Chinese college students, disclosed in December that it raised almost $21 million from 30 big investors, who agreed to purchase 160 million shares for about 13 cents each, according to securities filings. But some of those investors were involved in a pump and dump that defrauded 600 victims, according to an indictment issued in March. Seven of the big buyers quickly moved their shares to U.S. brokerage firms. Recruiting investors through Facebook ads and WhatsApp texts, they unloaded over 50 million shares, earning over $480 million, according to the indictment. The Chicago U.S. attorney's office in March seized about $214 million, or under half of the allegedly illegal proceeds, after a brokerage firm alerted Finra of potential fraud. The seven traders, five from Malaysia and two from Taiwan, were charged with wire fraud and securities fraud over their sales of China Liberal Education Holdings stock. Nasdaq suspended China Liberal's stock from trading on June 3. Lindstrom, the college professor, is one of five people interviewed by The Wall Street Journal who said they were fooled by advertisements on Facebook or Instagram that told them to buy Jayud Global Logistics. The promoters sometimes referred to Jayud as 'Cash Cow 5' and said its price would skyrocket after it was acquired by a bigger shipping company, Matson. Lindstrom invested $82,000 in late March. The price touched $8 on April 1. After the market closed that day, Jayud's stock price crashed to under $1. The administrator of Lindstrom's WhatsApp group told him he could make up his losses by buying more shares of a different Chinese company, Nasdaq-listed Lixiang Education Holding. He didn't fall for the second swindle, but some did. Lixiang's price fell on April 17 from $23 to $7. It trades now at $2. 'It just kind of puts a dent in your faith in human nature,' Lindstrom said. Another investor in Northern California, a 45-year-old commercial property manager, said he lost $320,000 betting on Jayud. A different investor from Missouri lost $54,000. He said he believed that Meta, which owns Facebook, would block stock scams from advertising. Meta said it is experimenting with new tools, such as facial-recognition technology, designed to block complex scams. 'Addressing this crime requires collaboration between banks, governments, law enforcement and telecoms,' a spokeswoman said. Lindstrom and the others formed a support group of about 96 Jayud investors who collectively lost about $9 million, he said. Nasdaq says it has made it harder in recent years for risky companies to remain listed on its exchange. In January, for instance, Nasdaq accelerated the process for delisting some companies whose share price falls under $1. 'Nasdaq takes its regulatory responsibilities seriously,' Nasdaq said in a statement. 'Where Nasdaq does not have principal authority, such as cross-market trading activity, we proactively work with other regulators and enforcement agencies to help address instances of market manipulation.' Authorities have recently focused on suspicious trading in the shares of several other China-based companies, including Lixiang and NetClass Technology, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for NetClass said the company can't explain recent volatility in its share price but is committed to providing investors with information they need to assess the company's performance and future outlook. NetClass (NTCL) went public in December, pricing its shares at $5 and raising about $10 million, according to securities filings. The share price rose steadily until early May, when it reached an intraday peak of $51 on a frenzy of trading. The price collapsed a few days later. It now trades just above $2. Such volume spikes attract new buyers—and short sellers, who bet that the price will have to fall, said Nathan Michaud, a professional trader who has called attention to the schemes on social media. But the short sales, he said, can inadvertently further fuel a fraud. If the promoters push the price higher, short sellers scramble to buy shares to replenish the ones they borrowed, boosting the price even more. 'I think they realized it is harder to fool people into buying stock, and easier to trap people into shorting stock,' Michaud said. 'The only way you can absolutely kill your career is by trading these.' Write to Dave Michaels at Victoria's Secret Is Under Mounting Pressure From Latest Activist Investor Chinese Spenders Open Wallets as Factories Slow What's Behind PayPal's Will Ferrell Ads? How Stablecoins Can Be Destabilizing Santos Gets $18.72 Billion Takeover Offer From Adnoc-Led Consortium By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Sign in to access your portfolio
