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Happy Friday. Ease into the weekend with these stories from WTTW News.
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(WTTW News)
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Chicago Public Schools will hold classes on May 1 after reaching an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union that will allow students and staff to attend a rally as part of the annual “May Day” labor holiday.
The announcement comes after a push by the CTU and some Board of Education members to close schools and allow for demonstrations that day.
“This agreement preserves the classroom time students deserve and respects our staff and families who must be able to trust CPS to uphold the academic school year calendar,” CPS CEO Macquline King said in a statement. “At the same time, the agreement honors the proud history of civic action in Chicago and beyond.”
The CTU in a statement Friday acknowledged that while classes will be in session, CPS has agreed to declare May 1 as a day of civic action, allowing educators to “organize across the city, and to engage our students in civic action and solidarity.”
“Many CTU members have already been planning school-based, regional, and city-wide events or requested the day off and you should continue with your plans,” the union said in a message to its members.
The CTU said it has an agreement with CPS in which the school district has pledged to provide buses for field trips of students and educators to attend an afternoon May Day rally in Union Park.
The debate:
Jennifer Custer, a CPS board member representing District 1B on Chicago’s Northwest Side, strongly opposed canceling classes, arguing it could disrupt families who have made plans around the current schedule. She said it’s still up in the air whether classes will be held May 1.
Custer said she has received “countless” emails from parents in her district who said their children must be in school May 1 or they will need to call out of work, an alternative many cannot afford.
Bridget Doherty Trebing, a 26-year veteran art teacher at William Howard Taft High School and CTU executive board member, said CPS is violating the contract and that adjusting school calendars on short notice is ordinary.
“As a 26-year veteran, we certainly do make adjustments to the calendar. It isn’t moving mountains,” Doherty Trebing said. “This week, high school students were doing ACT testing and pre-ACT testing. Schedules were adjusted, some students were not in attendance. So that’s not uncommon.”
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A group of jail personnel inspect stacks of letters and books in the mail room at Cook County Jail in a file photo. Illinois Department of Corrections will begin scanning mail in state prisons. (Cary Robbins / DePaul)
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The switch to digitized mail for incarcerated people has had little impact on the drug exposures the policy sought to stop, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Instead, there was an increase in total drug discoveries between the six months prior to digitization and the six months after — 392 to 414, according to the report obtained by WTTW News.
On Tuesday, IDOC presented these numbers in a status update to the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules on the recently adopted rule that allows the department to scan and digitize physical mail for incarcerated people. The rule came after corrections staff were exposed to drugs in facilities and hospitalized, and argued that digitization would improve safety.
What does it mean?
“The numbers just aren’t there to justify this amount of work and also keeping the actual mail away from the people who are in custody,” said State Rep. Dave Vella (D-Rockford).
Michael Crum, chief compliance officer for the department, said Tuesday it’s early on and he expects contraband numbers to decrease. He said there’s also a possibility that contraband existed prior to digitization, and it was found afterwards.
The figures show that mail scanning doesn’t appear to be an effective policy, said Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of prison watchdog group the John Howard Association. She said she’s frustrated that the department moved forward with the policy without waiting for more data.
Mail scanning has gone “better than expected so far” for the union that represents most correctional employees, AFSCME Council 31, said spokesperson Anders Lindall in a statement. He said mail scanning is just an important piece, “not a panacea,” and that it will take time for its benefits to be fully felt.
The department is searching for a third party vendor to process incoming mail, where the mail would be sent offsite, scanned and sent to facilities for security review, then uploaded to tablets. Crum said he doesn’t expect this to impact those who use the service.
But further spending on a system with “very little evidence that it’s making a difference” is a concern for Vollen-Katz.
“It absolutely does not seem worth the investment to be doing this,” Vollen-Katz said.
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(WTTW News)
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The city’s front gate is the Chicago Harbor Lock: a 600-foot-long, 80-foot-wide chamber that separates the Chicago River from Lake Michigan. It’s the second busiest harbor lock in the nation, and it’s right there next to Navy Pier. Built in the 1930s, it was part of the project that famously reversed the flow of the Chicago River.
The whole point of that engineering feat was to keep wastewater out of the lake. But what about other floaters? Namely the thousands of boats that travel back and forth between the river and lake every year.
It’s needed because the river is anywhere from one to four feet lower than the lake. So think of the lock as an elevator. Boats in the river are basically at ground level, and the lock gives them the boost they need to get to the lake.
How it works:
Boats coming from the river line up in a holding area outside the lock, waiting for signals.
A red light means “Do not enter.”
Yellow gives government and commercial boats the OK to move into the lock.
And green means go for recreational boaters.
As many as 100 boats can fill the lock at one time. Once everyone’s in position, the lockmaster shuts the gate behind them to cut off the river. Next, the gate to the lake cracks open. Lake water slowly fills the lock, and boats ride up with the rising level.
The steps are reversed for boats returning to the river from the lake. The whole process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. And it’s repeated more than 10,000 times every boating season.
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More From WTTW News:
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Tim King, the former leader of the Urban Prep charter schools who resigned in 2022 amid sexual misconduct allegations, now faces federal charges alleging he embezzled more than $100,000 in school funding.
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Back in the Day: April 17, 2006 - Former Ill. Gov. George Ryan Convicted of 18 Felony Corruption Charges
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George Ryan, a Republican, was a pharmacist who turned his father's drugstores into a successful chain, and eventually rose through the ranks of political office, going from the Kankakee Board to the Illinois House, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state, all the way up to becoming governor of Illinois. He served one term in the Governor's Mansion from 1999 to 2003, and days before he left office, he commuted the death sentences of state convicts to life in prison, effectively emptying Illinois’ death row. His political career ended amid allegations of corruption, mainly that he rewarded friends with government funds and jobs, used his network to enrich himself and
illegally covered up several scandals. On this day 20 years ago, Ryan was convicted by a federal jury on 18 counts of corruption charges. Later that year, he was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison. He served over five years and was released in 2013. Ryan died in May 2025 at 91.
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Other News From Around Town
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Every Friday, WTTW News highlights our favorite stories about Chicago from the local and national press.
The Video Strip Outlived Blockbuster And Is Still Renting Out 25,000 Movies On The South Side (Block Club Chicago)
“When visiting The Video Strip, customers are met with a movie rental collection so large that ‘it would take a couple of lifetimes to watch everything in here,’ said owner Joe Trutin.
Increasingly, customers go into the McKinley Park store for reasons other than movie rentals and leave in awe at the scale of the DVDs on offer.
‘It’s always everybody’s reaction when they walk around here,’ Trutin said. ‘It’s like, ‘Oh my God, you got everything I’m looking for.’
The Video Strip, 3307 S. Archer Ave., celebrated 30 years in business late last year as it marches on as one of Chicago’s last movie rental stores. Trutin is only familiar with one other video rental business — Video Playground at 10437 S. Kedzie Ave. in Mount Greenwood — but that business specializes more in video duplication services.
Opened in 1995, The Video Strip has outlasted rental giants like Blockbuster and Family Video. Trutin, 51, credits that longevity partly to the size of his collection — 25,000 titles, compared with roughly 3,000 at the average Blockbuster — as well as the personal touch a small business can provide.”
The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now (The New York Times)
“In the Where to Eat: 25 Best series, we’re highlighting our favorite restaurants in cities across the United States. These lists will be updated as restaurants close and open, and as we find new gems to recommend. As always, we pay for all of our meals and don’t accept free items. We scouted the city’s vast food scene, from renowned Italian beefs to tavern-style pizza to Michelin-starred tasting menus. (And we’re here for your comments.)”
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What's your favorite fancy restaurant in Chicago?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to
say:
“Valhalla in Wicker Park might have been the best tasting menu experience I’ve ever had in the city. It’s been months, but I’m still thinking about their Queen Crab Arroz Caldo.” — Josh Terry, newsletter producer for WTTW News
“Gibson’s” — Bob S.
"Bloom Plant Based Kitchen" — Joel Ortiz, the Judy and John McCarter Fellow for WTTW News and "Chicago Tonight"
"Lula Cafe" — Blair Paddock, reporter for WTTW News
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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