Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.
This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms and a high near 79 degrees. Similar weather will continue into tonight with a low around 58. Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a chance of showers and a high near 77. Sunday will be mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms and a high around 79.
Top story
Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll: Downstate farmer beating the crop out of GOP establishment in gov race — by nearly 2-1 margin
In a potentially seismic shift in the Republican race for governor, downstate farmer Darren Bailey has seized a 15-percentage-point lead over Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin less than three weeks before the Illinois primary, a new Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll has found.
The survey of 677 likely Republican primary voters taken Monday and Tuesday by Public Policy Polling showed the first-term senator from southern Illinois opening up a commanding lead over Irvin and their four other primary rivals, marking the first public poll to put Bailey ahead of the pack.
A total of 32% of respondents said they’d vote for Bailey if the primary were held this past week. Only 17% chose Irvin. And the downstate lawmaker was beating Irvin not only on his own rural and small-town turf but also in the vast stretch of Chicago suburbs, where the Aurora mayor had been expected to do well.
If the numbers hold, it would represent a brutal repudiation by Illinois’ Republican voters of Irvin, his array of mainstream party endorsements and, most pointedly, his $50 million benefactor, Chicago hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin.
As the new polling suggests, Griffin’s designs on installing the mayor of Illinois’ second-largest city in the Executive Mansion may be on the verge of getting chewed up and spit out like wheat chaff by a Bible-quoting archconservative who has driven a combine for a living.
For Irvin, the results from the Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll suggest that his campaign may be losing steam at a crucial time. Irvin is now fending off not just TV ads from Bailey and rival candidate Jesse Sullivan, but also from the Democratic Governors Association, Pritzker and a dark money group airing its own critical ads.
Bailey, meanwhile, is in a position to capitalize on the poll’s findings as he embarks on an ambitious bus tour that he said in a Wednesday Facebook post would make stops in all of Illinois’ 102 counties during the next two weeks.
Our Tina Sfondeles and WBEZ’s Dave McKinney have more on the poll results here.
More news you need
- FBG Cash, a hip-hop artist from the South Side, was killed and a woman with him was seriously wounded when he exchanged gunfire with someone in a black Cadillac early this morning. Born Tristian Hamilton, the 31-year-old was part of a group of rappers known as the “Fly Boy Gang.” Another member of the collective, FBG Duck, was killed in broad daylight on the Gold Coast nearly two years ago.
- Two teenage boys have been charged with shooting a paintball gun at former Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard outside his Chatham home over the Memorial Day weekend. The boys, 16 and 17, were arrested a week apart, according to police.
- In Cook County, many government agencies and nonprofits have lost $89.7 million by leasing property to businesses that don’t pay their taxes. A Sun-Times investigation found that the government landlords do little to monitor this — even when the law requires it.
- Three years ago, a Southwest Side teacher and her sixth-graders studied the peeling paint in the area’s viaducts, finding lead levels that were hundreds of times what would be considered safe for house paint. But city health officials are downplaying any health threat, our Brett Chase reports.
- Chicago’s former inspector general says Lori Lightfoot hasn’t been the reform mayor she promised to be despite owing her 2019 election to the corruption scandal still swirling around indicted Ald. Ed Burke. That’s the unrestrained assessment from former IG Joe Ferguson, who recently spoke with our Fran Spielman months after he resigned to avoid being pushed out by Lightfoot.
- American travelers abroad have been reporting that their cellphone carriers have hit them with multiple, mysterious, $10-a-day international data charges. And that’s happened even after they turned off their cellular data and used only Wi-Fi for calls and texts, our Stephanie Zimmermann reports.
A bright one
4 women created a mural on Roosevelt Road in the South Loop celebrating women’s strength
When artist Beth Swanson got the go-ahead last year to create a mural in the South Loop, she decided it would be a piece created by women for women.
She searched on Instagram and found the artists — Julie Hernandez, Kristine Campbell and Fantasía Ariel —she wanted to help bring to life her vision: a mural representing the strength of women.
They worked for three weeks, each producing a portion of the mural at a shopping and residential complex at 150 W. Roosevelt Rd.
The women worked together only at times. But Campbell, 37, from Logan Square, says she loved how their individual styles came together.
“We needed to all be different in order to create this beautiful piece,” Campbell says.
The mural features an image of a Black woman, smiling, her eyes closed, painted by Ariel, 27.
“I wanted a striking portrait,” Swanson says of Ariel’s contribution. “I wanted that feeling of depth and reverence, but I didn’t want it to feel too heavy, either.”
Nicky Andrews has more on the mural here.
For more stories about Chicago’s street art, try our weekly Murals & Mosaics newsletter.
From the press box
- White Sox manager Tony La Russa and recently fired Angels manager Joe Maddon – remember him? – share a bond: They never think they’re wrong, Rick Morrissey writes.
- Rudy Gobert to the Bulls? Joe Cowley breaks down the recent NBA trade rumor with a word of caution about the Jazz All-Star.
- The Sky are near the top of the WNBA standings, but minor mistakes have proved costly in their four losses, Annie Costabile writes.
Your daily question ☕
What is your favorite summertime Chicago festival? Tell us why.
Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
Yesterday we asked you: Which Harold’s Chicken is the best?
Here’s what some of you said…
“The one under the L on Wabash — because the sauce is banging.” — Maurice Moore
“The one on 57th and Ashland. Twenty minutes cooked to order. Nothing fresher out there.” — Chardae T. Giles
“79th on Cottage Grove. Nice, juicy and greasy.” — Felix Onasys
“Don’t t nobody want long lines at they fav. Bye 👋🏽” — Sarah JL
Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
