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Today, WTTW News has stories on stalled police reform, meteor showers and delicious local recommendations from “Chicago Tonight” host Brandis Friedman. |
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(WTTW News) |
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More than 200 positions charged with implementing a court order that requires the Chicago Police Department to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights are vacant, with another 226 positions unaccounted for, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Of 439 positions in the Chicago Police Department charged with implementing the court order known as the consent decree, 207 positions, or 47%, were empty seven months into 2025, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News.
CPD officials and representatives of Mayor Brandon Johnson failed to account for another 226 positions that city officials told the federal judge responsible for overseeing the reform effort would be responsible for implementing the consent decree, which is designed to reform CPD, which has faced decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality.
“The Chicago Police Department and the Office of Budget and Management are committed to filling vacant positions as CPD continues its efforts to meet consent decree obligations,” according to a statement from the city’s budget office. “Due to the collaborative partnership CPD and OBM have forged, there are currently over 150 positions in the hiring process.”
CPD officials, as well as representatives of the mayor, did not respond to repeated requests from WTTW News asking them to account for all 665 consent decree positions outlined in the city’s 2025 spending plan.
Some backstory:
More than eight months ago, lawyers representing the city told U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is presiding over efforts to enforce the decree, that those employees would step up efforts to comply with the consent decree after she declared the city’s progress “unsatisfying” and called for an “aggressive” reform effort.
Pallmeyer specifically praised Johnson’s decision to reverse the deep cuts to the number of employees charged with implementing the consent decree during a December hearing.
The next hearing in the consent decree case is set to take place virtually at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
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A map of U.S Congressional Districts proposed plan is seen at a Texas legislators' public hearing on congressional redistricting in Austin, Texas, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file) |
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Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois amid an ongoing redistricting battle say they remain “more committed than ever,” days after bomb threats forced the evacuation of their suburban Chicago hotel and delayed scheduled events.
The Texas representatives, who are entering their second week of their quorum break, stood with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in Chicago Monday, days after a pair of bomb threats were called in to their St. Charles hotel.
“We’ve been tested this week,” Texas Rep. Mihaela Plesa said during the news conference in the Avondale neighborhood, “we’ve been threatened, but we stand more committed than ever in our goal.”
Plesa’s comments came almost a week after a first bomb threat forced the evacuation of some 400 people at their hotel. A second bomb threat was reportedly phoned in last Friday.
More context:
Texas’ Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at President Donald Trump’s urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president’s agenda and twice impeached him.
Now, Democratic-controlled states including California, New York and Illinois are threatening to retaliate against Texas and Trump by proposing their own redistricting, putting the nation on the brink of a tit-for-tat overhaul of congressional boundaries that are typically redrawn only once a decade.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’ll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the 100-member threshold required to vote on the bill. Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have pushed for the absent representatives to be arrested and returned to Texas in order to complete the vote.
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A Perseid captured in 2012. (Sky Schemer / Flickr Creative Commons) |
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The Perseid meteor shower is one of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated celestial events of the year.
Someone forgot to tell the moon.
The annual shower will hit its peak in the early morning hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, as Earth passes closest to the core of the comet debris field that generates the meteors. Under optimum conditions, people have observed 60-90 colorful Perseids per hour, but the glow of the moon is likely to cut that number at least in half.
Optimists say that just means the faintest Perseids will be hard to see, leaving the best and brightest.
For those who would be excited to spot a single meteor, here's how to maximize your chances.
When:
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The best time for viewing is between midnight and dawn, with the hour between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. potentially seeing the most activity. If no luck, try Thursday or Friday morning, when there will be less interference from the moon as it continues to wane.
Where:
How:
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected its first Black presiding bishop last week. Bishop Yehiel Curry — who currently leads the Metropolitan Chicago Synod — will start his new role in October. He sat down with "Chicago Tonight“ to discuss the church, his ministry and career.
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A federal judge allowed Chicago to join a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from yanking funding from cities and counties across the country because they have laws designed to protect undocumented immigrants by prohibiting state local law enforcement officials from helping federal agents.
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Back in the Day: August 12, 1965 - Garfield Park Riot
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Every year during the 1950s, tens of thousands of Black Americans fled the Jim Crow South for a better life in northern cities like Chicago, but were still met with segregation. At the beginning of 1963, West Garfield Park was an entirely white neighborhood until one African American family moved there in June. By 1965, the neighborhood’s demographics had completely flipped, thanks to white flight. Racial tensions were already high in a changing neighborhood when, on this day in 1965, a 23-year-old Black woman named Dessie May Williams was killed when a Chicago Fire Department ladder fell, knocking over a street sign that landed on her. The tragic death sparked anger in the community — the all-white fire crew was dispatched without a tillerman, whose job it is to secure and control ladders, and rumors that one of the firefighters was drunk caused the anger to simmer into outrage. Riots and unrest plagued the West Side neighborhood and lasted three days. More than 80 people were injured and 169 were arrested. |
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This Week’s Staff Recommendations: Brandis Friedman’s Favorite Local Sweet Treats |
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Every Tuesday, WTTW News staffers highlight their favorite things about Chicago. This week, it’s “Chicago Tonight” host Brandis Friedman on the hottest local spots for cool desserts.
Brandis Friedman: Everybody knows I have a sweet tooth. I'll never be one of those people who keeps the candy bowl in her office for others — because I will eat the whole bowl, leaving none for guests. So, in honor of said sweet tooth, I give you, my fave Chicago spots for a sweet treat.
Because it's summer, let's start with something to cool off: Pretty Cool Ice Cream. On the dessert scale (yes, we have a Scale of Desserts in my house), ice cream is literally No. 4 out of 4. Unless it's from Pretty Cool Ice Cream. This place takes you back to your childhood with ice cream bars on a stick (like the ones from the ice cream truck) but with a few more mature flavor combos like Caramel Horchata Crunch or Key Lime Icicle Pie (in partnership with our friends at Bang Bang Pie Shop). The flavor possibilities are endless and they always include a special bar/item for which the proceeds benefit a local community organization or nonprofit. The last one I had was made with a swirl of sweet corn ice cream and roasted sweet potato ice cream, with a salted brown butter caramel shell. So. There ya go.
What's my No. 1 favorite dessert you ask? CAKE ALL DAY. And my fave place for cake (any cake, all cake) is Sweet Mandy B's. Y'all, I really can't describe it other than it's delicious. I love that when you visit later in the day, they'll sell cakes by the slice. A SLICE OF CAKE! I don't have to buy the whole cake. I don't have to buy a cupcake (those are good too), but a slice of cake just brings the nostalgia to cake slices at birthday parties as a kid (not at the office. ew). The cakes are always moist, the icing is always a rich buttercream (not that whipped cream stuff). The flavors here are classic vanilla to lemon to red velvet — with some cookie monster or snickerdoodle or strawberry or lemon or...you get the idea, thrown in.
Like I said, I like cake. So, let's hit the South Side’s Grand Crossing neighborhood for this classic: Brown Sugar Bakery. The menu here reminds me of the Southern classics (again, of my childhood). My all-time favorite: the caramel cake. But they also have classics like red velvet, strawberry and German dark chocolate. And again … if you pop by the shop (or even order online: hello, Uber Eats & DoorDash) you can purchase just a slice! That you don't have to share! Worth noting: Brown Sugar boasts being the first Black woman-owned chocolate manufacturer in the U.S. — and is now shipping nationwide.
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What's your favorite music festival held in Chicago? From your neighborhood block party to Lollapalooza, tell us where, why and when. |
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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