Afternoon Edition: Sept. 3, 2020

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee today. | Getty

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 sunny and hot, with a high near 87 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 55 degrees. Tomorrow will be significantly cooler: sunny with a high near 79 degrees.

Top story

Biden meets with Jacob Blake’s family in Milwaukee, before heading to Kenosha ‘to heal and address the challenges we face’

Two days after President Donald Trump toured Kenosha in the wake of civil unrest, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden landed in Wisconsin today to meet with the family of Jacob Blake.

Shortly after landing at a Milwaukee airport about 11:40 a.m., Biden met privately with relatives of Blake, the Black man whose shooting at the hand of a white Kenosha police officer just over a week ago has spurred the nation’s latest reckoning with racism and police violence.

The former vice president and his wife Jill Biden were meeting at the airport with Blake’s father Jacob Blake Sr., three of the wounded man’s siblings and several of his lawyers.

Biden traveled to the beleaguered southeastern Wisconsin city for a community meeting “to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face,” according to his campaign.

That meeting is taking place this afternoon at a Lutheran church west of the downtown Kenosha city square that saw days — and violent nights — of protests following the Aug. 23 shooting of Blake.

“I’m not going to tell Kenosha what they have to do, but we have to do together,” Biden told reporters in Delaware yesterday. “I spent my whole life, including in this city you’re in right now, bringing people together. Bringing the community and police officers together. Bringing business leaders and civic leaders together. And so that’s my purpose in going.”

During his visit Tuesday, Trump decried how “Kenosha has been ravaged by anti-police and anti-American riots.”

The Republican president said he had planned to speak by phone with Blake’s mother, “but then I heard there were a lot of lawyers on the phone. I said, ‘I have enough lawyers in my life. I don’t need to get involved with that,’” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Jacob Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, warned the president to “keep your disrespect and foul language away from our family.”

Kenosha was quiet this morning as police set up no-parking signs and a few people gathered across the street from Grace Lutheran Church, on the corner of 60th Street and 20th Avenue, awaiting Biden’s arrival. Those who showed up from the community were outnumbered by media.

Chloe Lenz, 17, said both visits to her hometown are a good thing even if it may be driven by politics.

“It shows people we’re not alone and helps people know what’s happening and how sad it is,” Lenz said.

Biden is also expected to make another campaign stop later today in the Milwaukee suburbs, during what is just his second time outside his carefully controlled COVID-19 bubble over the last few months of a pandemic-ridden campaign.

Get our latest coverage on Biden’s visit to Kenosha here.

More news you need

1. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 budget will erase a $1.2 billion shortfall without assuming any replacement revenue from Washington — but with hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increases and budget cuts that include a mix of layoffs, furlough days and pay cuts, top mayoral aides said today. Fran Spielman breaks down what that could mean for you.
2. The man who died of asphyxiation after police in New York put a “spit hood” over his head was the loving father of five adult children who had some mental health issues but was harmless, his aunt said. Daniel Prude, 41, known to his big Chicago-based family as “Rell,” died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester.
3. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks today granted the prestigious status to the Woodlawn home where Emmett Till lived before the fateful trip down south that ended with his brutal lynching in 1955. Plans for Till’s home, a 2,308-square-foot, brick two-flat, are up in the air.
4. A child and man found dead in a Glendale Heights condo fire in August were each killed by a gunshot wound to the head, according to preliminary autopsy results released today. Despite the autopsy results and “boom” heard by witnesses ahead of the Aug. 24 fire, police have not revealed the circumstances leading up to the blaze.
5. Labor union leaders from throughout Illinois spoke out today for voter approval of the proposed graduated state income tax, saying the pandemic has underscored the need for taxation that’s fair to working people. “Our communities have been living in perpetual crises,” said Greg Kelley, president of SEIU Healthcare. “We all deserve a brighter future, and this is why we need the Fair Tax.”
6. Whether it was spoofing “Star Wars,” dressing up as a vampire for Halloween sales or donning a full cowboy outfit to try to sell you a Mitsubishi, car dealer Bob Rohrman could be relied on to fill usually boring commercial time with his Midwestern flair. Watch his best TV commercials here.

A bright one

Blues Brothers weed strain — developed by Jim Belushi — to go on sale at massive new suburban pot shop

Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd made cinematic history when they tore through Harvey’s Dixie Square Mall in a Dodge Monaco police cruiser.

Fast forward 40 years and Jim Belushi, the late Blues Brother’s brother, now plans to drive a replica of the famed Bluesmobile to this afternoon’s opening of a massive pot shop across the street from another suburban mall.

The “According to Jim” star, who has been growing cannabis at his Oregon farm for around five years, has partnered with Grassroots Cannabis to exclusively sell his Blues Brothers weed strain at the new dispensary, located in an old bank steps from the Old Orchard shopping center in Skokie. He plans to pull up to the shop and hand-deliver the bud.

Jim Belushi smells cannabis growing at his Oregon farm. | Instagram

Belushi, who grew up in the western suburbs, told us he started smoking weed while attending Wheaton Central High School. Taken by the plant’s healing and medicinal effects, and the fact that it simply “makes you feel good,” he now prefers to “microdose” cannabis as a sleep aid and to manage anxiety.

In recent years, Belushi broke into the pot industry when he started cultivating weed at his namesake farm in Eagle Point, Oregon, a process that’s been documented in the Discovery Channel show “Growing Belushi.”

Read Tom Schuba’s full story here.

From the press box

Wrigley Field could become home to the first sportsbook at an MLB stadium under a new partnership between the Cubs and DraftKings announced today.

And Bears lineman Akiem Hicks returned to practice this morning in a welcomed development for the team. Hicks had been sidelined the last two weeks with an unspecified injury.

Your daily question ☕

Which classic Bob Rohrman commercial is your favorite, and why?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s your favorite entertainment event you’ve streamed from home this year? Here’s what some of you said…

“Verzuz Jill Scott v. Erykah Badu. Made my year!” — Jakara Lynne

“The Last Dance, hands down. Got to relive some of my favorite childhood memories, and the documentary was a great replacement for sports during the shut down.” — Alexios Gakis

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