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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Daywatch: Suburb drops street designation after namesake's daughter alleges abuse
Good morning, Chicago. For the past half-century, a tree-lined stretch of 48th Street in La Grange was named Linklater Court in memory of the west suburb's longtime village attorney William John Linklater, who died in 1971. Yet the La Grange Village Board recently stripped the street of this honorary moniker after the late lawyer's daughter accused him of abusing her as a child during a stunning public comment session at a Village Board meeting. Anne Brandt, 79, at a late June meeting, implored village officials to remove the street's honorary name, alleging her father had sexually abused her as a child during the 1950s. Read the full story from the Tribune's Angie Leventis Lourgos. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including construction underway on a new terminal at O'Hare, when Game 2 of the Cubs doubleheader vs. the Brewers will be played after last night's postponement and when the Christkindlmarket will reopen for the season in Chicago and Aurora. Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History A recent veto from Gov. JB Pritzker puts him at odds with nonprofits, labor unions and some state Democrats who say he blocked what would have been an advantageous investment option at a time when the organizations are feeling tightening pressure from Washington. After years of negotiations and delays, construction is underway on the first of several major projects that represent a massive overhaul at O'Hare International Airport. Building the terminal marks the first major step in the airport expansion, first negotiated by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2018. A federal judge has thrown out a second case against Abbott Laboratories over the safety of its formula for babies born prematurely — a decision with potential implications for hundreds of other similar cases. Across the city yesterday, children stepped into crisp uniforms and laced up brand-new shoes for the first day of school. Yellow buses wove through neighborhoods on soon-to-be familiar routes. Parents hugged their little ones and wished them well with their new teachers and friends. Despite the first day buzz, Chicago Public Schools opened its school doors amid a time of serious financial uncertainty, felt most by the parents and community interacting with the district every day. Eric McMillen's phone rang the morning of April 30 — his daughter was in a fight with the man she was seeing and needed a ride. What began as a discussion between the two men, prosecutors said, ended with McMillen shot three times and a weekslong search for the man whom had been longtime friend of the family, The second game of yesterday's split doubleheader between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field was postponed because of the threat of storms. Sean Burke started opening day for the Chicago White Sox. Yesterday, the Sox optioned the right-hander to Triple-A Charlotte. 'We obviously have high expectations for Sean, and he's got high expectations for himself,' Sox general manager Chris Getz said before yesterday's game against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. 'We had reached a point, and our assessment thus far is he needs to take another step.' The plan was to film in Chicago for a few days, but Christopher Nolan took such a liking to the city — a place he had spent time in his youth — that he asked the studio for additional filming time. He filmed for three weeks in Chicago for 'Batman Begins.' One memorable scene shows a four-minute Batmobile chase along Lower Wacker Drive, a location Nolan returned to for his next in the series. With 'The Dark Knight,' he forever linked Chicago to Batman lore. Death arrives with regularity, but sometimes it can produce something in addition to tears. And so it was last week when Mike Dooley let Rick Kogan know that his brother, Jim Dooley, had died this month after a lengthy battle with colon cancer. Jim, Mike, Joe and Bill were The Dooley Brothers band, as entertaining and durable as any band in the city's musical history. They have been at it since the 1960s, a duration that earned them the title, bestowed by an NPR voice, of 'the longest continuously running band in the Chicago area after the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.' The annual holiday market announced it will return to three locations this year: RiverEdge Park in Aurora and Daley Plaza and Gallagher Way in Chicago. This year marks the 29th season in Daley Plaza and fourth in Aurora's RiverEdge Park.
Chicago Tribune
16-05-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
La Grange eyes green measures to comply with Climate Action Plan
Nearly a year after the La Grange Village Board approved a resolution endorsing the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region last June, the head of the village's Environmental Quality Commission said the village has made some progress toward a greener future, but there's still lots of work to do. The Climate Action Plan was developed by the Metropolitan Mayor's Caucus, a membership organization of the Chicago region's 275 cities, towns and villages, to set goals to reduce future climate impacts. In La Grange, signing on to the Climate Action Plan was the latest step in an effort that also included adopting a Greenest Region Compact resolution in 2018 that outlines goals to guide municipal action and foster relations between participating communities, according to Rose Naseef, chairwoman of the La Grange Environmental Quality Commission. She lauded the village's successes, including achieving a Silver Designation through the national SolSmart program — focusing on solar energy, being recognized as a Tree City USA for 40th year and receiving a Tree City USA growth award from the Arbor Day Foundation. But, she said, there are more steps to take. 'The regional Climate Action Plan specifically states that to address the root causes of climate change, which is the increased concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels, municipalities in the Chicago region must aggressively pursue the goals,' Naseef said. 'We must use less energy overall. We must use energy from cleaner sources, We must remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.' Although the ultimate goal of the Climate Action Plan is to become greenhouse gas emissions free, interim mitigation goals set by the Caucus include reducing greenhouse emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030, 65% by 2040, and at least 80% by 2050. To help the region achieve those goals, it recommends municipal policies that encourage energy efficiency in buildings along with more complicated solutions such as creating district energy systems. Naseef talked about policies that municipalities could enact— some simple, like making buildings more energy efficient, or more complicated policies, like creating district energy systems. In La Grange, Naseef suggested reducing carbon in its own operations, enacting environmentally-friendly policies such as streamlining solar codes, and encouraging community members to get involved in and reduce their own emissions. La Grange Environmental Quality Commission Commissioner Aakruti Liva suggested an action timeline for village leaders. Goals for the next couple years included establishing local sustainability targets, facilitating composting and recycling, flood mitigation, promoting ecosystems in public landscapes and advancing electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Village President Mark Kuchler said the Village had begun to address some of the commission's ideas. 'Because of suggestions from the EQC, our Public Works was able to compost several truckloads of leaves, and end some of the regulations on solar (energy) for residents, and we do appreciate those suggestions made in the last year or two,' he said. After the presentation Kuchler highlighted climate-friendly measures already in place in La Grange. 'We're continuing to advocate for more and more recycling, more and more composting and the village is going to continue with all that,' he said. 'We allowed a company to come in to supply power,' he said. 'ComEd continues to supply it, but we went with a company that agreed to use a certain percentage of green energy.' Kuchler also mentioned leaf collection, saying 'we're trying to move more and more leaves collected into composting versus sending them on a truck to out of state.'
