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☆ A historic settlement could bring environmental justice to a Chicago neighborhood that's been filled with polluting industries
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"If you take away our health, you take away our wealth," Sanchez, a community planning manager at the Southeast Environmental Task Force, told Insider. The first-of-its-kind settlement with HUD could be a model for environmental justice advocates in other cities. If the city didn't agree to address environmental harms, it risked losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal housing money. "Now all levels of city government have to listen to us and develop policies that are protective of public health." Sanchez said the case underscored the importance of updating city policies, because administrations come and go.

Persons: Oscar Sanchez, Sanchez, polluters, Robert Weinstock, who's, he's, Cheryl Johnson, Johnson, Jamie Kelter Davis, Weinstock, Brandon Johnson, Charles Rex Arbogast, Angela Tovar Organizations: Service, Environmental, Force, US Department of Housing, Urban Development, Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, Urban, Community, Factories, Washington, Getty, Chicago AP Locations: Chicago's, Chicago, Lincoln Park, Black, Calumet

☆ A historically Black neighborhood in Chicago is harnessing a first-of-its-kind microgrid, raising a new standard for sustainable energy in disenfranchised areas.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood has a microgrid, which can operate independently if necessary. A microgrid, a smaller version of the city's electrical power grid, went live last year in the iconic South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville. It's this kind of energy reform, said William Davis, the executive director of the Bronzeville Community Development Partnership, that should "start in the hardest-hit areas." Solar panels on several neighborhood buildings are also contributing power to the microgrid, integrating the zero-carbon energy into Chicago's grid system. Together, the microgrid and energy initiatives represent progress in a community that might have otherwise been overlooked, Davis said.

Persons: Bronzeville, Jesse Owens, Louis Armstrong, Joe Biden, William Davis, Zheng, it's, Yami Newell, It's, Davis Organizations: Service, Congress, Heritage Area, Development Partnership, Illinois Institute of Technology, Black Metropolis Deemed, Department of Energy Locations: Chicago's Bronzeville, Bronzeville, New York, New Jersey, Texas

☆ North Korea launches long-range missile toward sea after making threat over alleged U.S. spy flights
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters Wednesday, its neighbors said, two days after the North threatened "shocking" consequences to protest what it called a provocative U.S. reconnaissance activity near its territory. South Korea's military detected the long-range missile launch from the North's capital region around 10 a.m., the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said South Korea's military bolstered its surveillance posture and maintained readiness in close coordination with the United States. North Korea's long-range missile program targets the mainland U.S. Some experts say North Korea still has some technologies to master to possess functioning nuclear-armed ICBMs.

Persons: Kim Jong, Donald Trump, Yasukazu Hamada, Hamada Organizations: Joint Security, South's, Chiefs, Staff, Japanese Defense, Korean Locations: North, South Korea, Panmunjom, North Korea, South, United States, Korea, Korean, U.S

☆ A Pie Shop on Chicago’s South Side Serves More Than Dessert
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Kayla Stewart | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Broussard chose her bakery’s location in hopes of encouraging other chefs and entrepreneurs to join her. “I want to force people who don’t look like me to come to the South Side if they want my pies,” she said. “There’s a huge pride in the community to see this gleaming pie shop,” she said. “This is a pie shop that looks like it could be in Brooklyn, or on Magazine Street in New Orleans, but it’s here.”Several of the shop’s counters are 32 inches high, meeting the height standards of the American Disabilities Act and making them accessible for wheelchair users. Each section of the shop has a different floor tile texture, which helps patrons with limited sight who use a walking cane navigate the store.

Persons: Broussard, “, ”, Zella Palmer Organizations: Dillard University, American Locations: New Orleans, Chicago, Avalon, Brooklyn

☆ Chicago and NASCAR, an Odd Couple With High Hopes, Take It to the Streets
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Mitch Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A contractor at the track was electrocuted and died on Friday while final preparations for the race were underway. NASCAR’s visit to Chicago had been the subject of intense local debate since Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced it last summer without involving residents or City Council members in negotiations. Though NASCAR’s contract with Chicago calls for three years of racing, the new mayor, Brandon Johnson, could move to cancel the deal. “You can walk down the streets a little bit and not get recognized, so I hear a lot of conversations,” Mr. Wallace said. But you hear a lot of excitement, too.”Robert Chiarito contributed reporting.

Persons: NASCAR’s, Lori Lightfoot, Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson, Bubba Wallace, ” Mr, Wallace, ” Robert Chiarito Organizations: City Council, Chicago, NASCAR Locations: Chicago

☆ UK economic growth unrevised at 0.1% in first quarter of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File PhotoLONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Britain's economy grew 0.1% in the first quarter of this year, unrevised from an initial estimate published last month, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Friday. "The final Q1 2023 GDP data confirms that the economy steered clear of a recession at the start of 2023. Friday's figures showed that households' real disposable income was 0.8% smaller than the previous quarter, reflecting higher costs for electricity, gas and food. There were also signs that people were saving less in response to the increased cost of living, as the savings ratio fell to 8.7% in the first quarter from 9.4% in the quarter before, its lowest level since the second quarter of 2022 though well above its pre-pandemic average. Stripping out volatile trade in precious metals, the ONS's preferred measure, the underlying current account deficit narrowed to 2.6% of GDP from 3.3% of GDP in the final quarter of 2022.

Persons: Henry Nicholls, Ashley Webb, David Milliken, Andy Bruce, Sarah Young Organizations: REUTERS, Office, National Statistics, ONS, Capital Economics, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Germany, Ukraine

☆ Opinion | The Largest and Fastest Religious Shift in America Is Well Underway
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Donnell McLachlan, 29, who lives in Chicago, has been sharing the story of his deconstruction on TikTok @donnellwrites, where he has nearly 250,000 followers, since 2021. He was brought up in what he describes as a small Black church on the South Side of Chicago in the Pentecostal and Apostolic traditions. “I started to notice the distance between what we professed and what we actually did,” he told me, especially when it came to women, the L.G.B.T.Q. community and Black Lives Matter. And just like language, there are many interpretations and ways to express it.

Persons: Donnell McLachlan, “, ”, McLachlan, ” McLachlan, ” Jill Fioravanti, Fioravanti “, Hillel Organizations: Southern Baptist Convention, Conservative Jewish Locations: —, Chicago, Maryland

☆ Ebon Moss-Bachrach Gives ‘The Bear’ Its Abrasive Edge
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Melena Ryzik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

He still gets nervous before big scenes — but it’s helpful, he said; it means there’s something to risk. “I had my feelings hurt a lot.”In “The Bear,” Matty Matheson, the Canadian chef and restaurateur, plays the hanger-on and handyman Neil, his first scripted role. “I’m a student of the acting school of Ebon,” he said. “I’m like this soft blade, trying to constantly be nice,” said Matheson, who is also a producer and consultant on the series. For him, “The Bear” was a character study in loss and change.

Persons: “ I’m, he’s, ”, “, ” Matty Matheson, Neil, Matheson, Richie, I’m, ” “, “ Richie doesn’t, ” Storer, Courtney Storer, Christopher, Edebiri, Moss, Bachrach, — Carmy’s, Jon Bernthal, offscreen — Richie, ” Moss Organizations: Beef, nachos Locations: Ebon, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sydney, Chicagoans, Moss

CNN —The Philippines’ most active volcano began spewing lava and sulfuric gas Sunday, prompting the evacuation of nearly 13,000 residents in the southeast of the country’s main island, authorities said. Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recommended everyone within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius or “danger zone” of the Mount Mayon volcano be evacuated due to the danger of rockfalls, landslides and ballistic fragments. Within the past 24 hours, the Mayon Volcano Network recorded 21 weak volcanic earthquakes, and 260 rockfalls, as well as lava flow activity from the crater, according to Phivolcs. Albay province was placed under a state of calamity on Friday allowing the government to release response funds to support affected residents, CNN affiliate CNN Philippines reported. “Lava flows are slow moving and effusive eruptions are generally less violent and produce less ash and volcanic gases than explosive eruptions,” he told CNN Philippines.

Persons: Phivolcs, Teresito Bacolcol, Bacolcol, Mayon Organizations: CNN, Philippine Institute of, Philippine Provincial Information Office, CNN Philippines Locations: Philippines, Luzon, Manila, Mayon, Albay

☆ How I went from working on cruise ships to taking more than 20 a year as a guest — and make a living doing it
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Next thing I know, I'm in a room with a bunch of Broadway types, performing on a cruise ship. From cruise crew member to cruise YouTuberI figured I'd get maybe 100 views on YouTube. In 2021, when the cruise ship industry was coming back, I started jumping on every ship that I could as a guest. I no longer work for any cruise companies and was able to go full-time with my YouTube channel in 2022. J. Alexander was working in entertainment when he started posting videos about what it was like to work on a cruise ship.

ApartmentComplex Before dawn on Feb. 6, a powerful earthquake in southern Turkey destroyed an upscale apartment complex, killing hundreds. The main building in the Renaissance complex toppled over, evidence that the building had major vulnerabilities on the lower level and the south side. Tall column Recreational space on ground floor Antis Yapi via Facebook The most vulnerable part of Renaissance was the ground floor, which had an open layout. 3-D model highlights the ground floor columns and recreational spaces. The horizontal forces could have weakened the ground floor columns and possibly torn them apart.

☆ 'Death zone' queues feared on Everest as Nepal grants record climbing permits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] A general view of the Everest base camp taken from a drone, in Nepal April 24, 2023. So far, Nepal has handed out a record 463 permits to climb Everest between March and May, beating 2021's 409. Climbing is a key earner for the poor country, where about 500,000 people are employed in tourism, including climbing, and the number of permits has been rising steadily. So far this year, Nepal has granted permits to 1,046 climbers for 24 peaks, earning the government $5.6 million, of which $5 million came from Everest alone. He said the government was considering introducing a requirement for climbers to scale at least one 6,000-metre peak in Nepal before attempting Everest.

☆ Progressives Convinced Us to Get a Gun
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Gerard Leval | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wonder Land: When we began to devalue conscience, blurring a pragmatic understanding of right from wrong, we unleashed the whirlwind that engulfs us now. Our father wouldn’t allow it. He had his reasons: In depriving us of the revolvers, he often would cite his experience during World War II. During that service, a rifle shot grazed the back of his neck and came close to taking his life. He made it clear that, having been wounded and seen the horrors wrought by firearms, he didn’t believe anyone should think of such weapons as playthings.

☆ Opinion | Tim Scott Faces Long Odds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Scott is obviously not the first Black person to vie for the Republican presidential nomination. That distinction goes to Frederick Douglass, who received one vote at the 1888 Republican convention. Alan Keyes ran for the Republican nomination in 1996, 2000 and 2008; Herman Cain ran and withdrew in 2011; and Ben Carson ran in 2016. Tim Scott, however, would be the first Black Republican officeholder to run for the party’s presidential nomination, should he move past the exploratory phase. Even then, there were few Black people elected to national office, with a total of eight serving between 1914 and 1965.

☆ Exploring the Lakes of Minneapolis With $350,000: Could She Afford Three Bedrooms?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Mitch Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When Rae Bullinger returned to the Minneapolis area three years ago after a spell in Nebraska, she knew she was there to stay. Ms. Bullinger, 26, loved summer bike rides around the city’s lakes and enjoyed the lively food scene. She liked the apartment’s location and hoped to stay in South Minneapolis, where well-kept neighborhoods of single-family homes are interspersed with parkland and walkable retail districts. “You’re still a part of the city of Minneapolis, but you’re not downtown,” she said. When Ms. Bullinger began looking last fall, he said, there were plenty of choices within her budget.

☆ Why Walmart is closing half its stores in Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Walmart announced Tuesday that next week it will close four poor-performing stores out of the eight it operates in Chicago. Now, it's closing four Chicago stores. Walmart said its remaining four Chicago stores “continue to face the same business difficulties,” but it believes closing these four will give the others the best chance of staying open. There were fears that Walmart and other businesses would leave Chicago, but Walmart pledged to stay and invest in the city. Some retailers have also cited higher levels of theft and other crime in their city stores.

☆ Chicago to elect new mayor as crime emerges as key issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

CHICAGO, April 4 (Reuters) - Crime is the central issue in Tuesday's mayoral runoff in Chicago, where voters are choosing between two candidates with contrasting approaches to public safety. Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas calls for more cops; Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson calls for more mental health support and opportunities for young people. Johnson, a former Chicago teacher and union organizer, says he will promote 200 new detectives from the existing pool of police officers. A poll last week by Emerson College Polling, WGN-TV and The Hill showed Vallas leading Johnson by 5 points, with 13% undecided. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Donna Bryson and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Office Doom Loop: Landlords Face a Reckoning As Companies Move to Fancy Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles has a sterling pedigree, but even that can't save it from the doom loop facing many older office towers. A huge swath of America's office market is vulnerable to these twin threats of being under-equipped with amenities and underwater financially. This behavioral shift has deeply cut into demand for office space. The amount of sublease space nationally more than doubled from 118.5 million square feet at the end of 2019 to 242.8 million square feet at the end of 2022, Colliers stated. Lenders are often reluctant, he said, to seize office buildings because of the costs and expertise required to operate the properties.

CHICAGO — Former Rep. Bobby Rush, a longtime African American leader in Illinois, plans to throw his support behind Paul Vallas in the mayor’s race, providing Vallas a potential boost among Black voters heading into next month’s election. The endorsement announcement, first shared with NBC News by Vallas’ campaign, is expected Tuesday morning. Rush plans to offer his backing at an event on the city’s South Side that will include an anti-violence march, according to a spokeswoman for the Vallas campaign. Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas speaks during a press conference at his campaign headquarters on Feb. 3, 2023 in Chicago. Al Sharpton, who’s a host on MSNBC, is set to hold a large get-out-the-vote rally at a church whose pastor has backed Johnson.

☆ Tech service startup Bitwise Industries raises $80 mln in latest funding round
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 28 (Reuters) - Bitwise Industries, a tech service provider that trains workers in underrepresented communities, has raised $80 million in a funding round led by existing investors Kapor Center and Motley Fool, the company told Reuters. Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GS.N) and Citibank (C.N) also participated in the round, which brought its total funding to $180 million. Founded in Fresno, California by Irma Olguin Jr and Jake Soberal, Bitwise invests in tech real estate, runs apprentice programs for marginalized communities and sells managed tech services to government and traditional businesses. The company said it supported the training of over 10,000 individuals, 80% of whom have received technical employment. The training program, supported by government workforce upskill funding and tech corporate funding, usually takes about 12-18 months to complete.

CHICAGO—Residents of the Woodlawn neighborhood on this city’s South Side waged a losing fight last decade to save Wadsworth Elementary School, an imposing brick building that had long served as a center of their community. When they learned that the old school building was being reopened—as a shelter to house migrants—some said it felt like another insult by the city.

The play “Crystal City 1969,” first staged in 2009 in Dallas, was performed for the first time in San Antonio last weekend at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Student walkout in Crystal City, Texas, on Dec. 20, 1969. Growing up in a Mexican American household, he spoke no English. The effect of that sort of discrimination was to tell Mexican American and Mexican students that their language, their culture, was worthless, valueless and something to be ashamed of, Garcia said. Rodriquez attended one of the performances of "Crystal City 1969" over the weekend.

☆ Chicago high-rise fire leaves one dead, eight injured
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] Fire rages in a high-rise apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, U.S., January 25, 2023, in this still image obtained from a social media video. Chicago Fire Department/via REUTERSCHICAGO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A fast-moving fire on Wednesday spread to nine floors of a high-rise apartment building on Chicago's South Side, killing one person and injuring eight, including a firefighter, officials said. The blaze began on the 15th floor of the Harper Square Cooperative about 10 a.m. (1600 GMT) and spread vertically, Chicago Fire Department officials said in a news briefing. The 25-story, 360-unit apartment building has smoke detectors in the hallways, but it was unclear whether it has a sprinkler system, fire officials said. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Violence hits Mexican cartel stronghold after arrest of El Chapo's son
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Ovidio Guzman Lopez during his arrest in Culiacan, Mexico, on Oct. 17, 2019. An escaped Mexican cartel kingpin known as “El Neto” meanwhile died after a shootout early on Thursday, four days after he fled prison in a violent mass break-out, authorities said. Police arrive on the scene after a store was looted in Culiacan, Mexico, on Jan. 5, 2023. Martin Urista / APAt Culiacan’s airport, a Mexican military flight was able to spirit Guzmán away to Mexico City. Asked if the attempt to capture Guzmán was worth another day of tension and uncertainty in Culiacan, Téllez said, “If they caught him, it was worth it.”

☆ In Chicago, a South American Bird Scratches Out a Hardscrabble Home
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Joe Barrett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

CHICAGO—The first time John Viramontes saw monk parakeets in the wild, they were far from their native home in South America, feeding in a trash-strewn patch of grass beneath an elevated freeway that towers over industrial riverfront and abandoned steel mills on the city’s far south side. The non-native birds have become an unlikely fixture in the urban landscape of the Windy City, where large numbers of the striking green-and-gray parakeets live year-round.

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