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This Tuesday, WTTW News' Spotlight Politics team previews the DNC and looks back at Chicago's convention history. Plus, Stateville is transferring its prison population, and '44: The Obama Musical.'
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Spotlight Politics: The DNC and Chicago |
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Police and Protests
With the Democratic National Convention coming to town next week, Chicago — and its police force — will be in the spotlight.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling have repeatedly said the city’s officers are prepared to lawfully police the massive protests expected to erupt around the United Center and downtown under the white-hot media glare the convention is sure to trigger.
Let’s back up a bit to 2020 for some context: Two probes found CPD failed to protect constitutional rights during the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder. So far, Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $6.8 million to defend and settle lawsuits triggered by CPD’s conduct during those protests. At least a dozen more lawsuits are still pending.
What will be different this time? Everything, Snelling and Johnson say. CPD won’t be going it alone, and the department has had nearly a year and a half to get ready for the protests. Federal court monitors also required CPD to revamp its policy for handling First Amendment protests to prevent what happened during the summer of 2020 from happening again. We’ve broken down the changes to the department’s mass arrest policy and answered your questions about the laws around policing and protests.
-Heather Cherone
Chicago’s Convention History
Next week will mark the 27th time Chicago has hosted a national political convention. The first took place in 1860, where an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln became Republicans’ standard bearer.
Speaking of protests, another past event might be on the minds of those watching. The infamous 1968 Democratic Convention descended into violence when Chicago police and Illinois National Guardsmen clashed with thousands of anti-war protesters in Grant Park, with Mayor Daley defending law enforcement. We’ve broken down all of those past conventions and more in our video series WTTW News Explains.
-Amanda Vinicky |
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Stateville Correctional Center is pictured in a file photo. (Andrew Campbell / Capitol News Illinois) |
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Back in March, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed spending $900 million over the next five years to close down Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum-security men’s facility just outside of Joliet.
An independent report rated Stateville as outdated, needing costly repairs, and its building conditions as the worst of all state correctional facilities. In June, a 51-year-old incarcerated man named Michael Broadway died in custody.
Illinois prison officials must transfer most people incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center by Sept. 30, according to a new order from Federal Judge Andrea R. Wood.
What this means: The order puts a more concrete timeline to the prison closure process that state officials proposed early this year, closing Stateville and rebuilding the prison on the same Crest Hill property.
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The proposed closure also includes Logan Correctional Center, a women’s facility 30 miles north of Springfield.
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The rebuilds could take about five years.
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The state allocated $900 million for rebuilding the two prisons in the 2025 budget.
Why It Happened: The order comes after civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to immediately transfer incarcerated people housed at Stateville out of the facility last month. In a message to WTTW News, plaintiff Abdul Malik Muhammad said this move is “great news.” |
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Back in the Day: August 13, 1979 - Rosemont Horizon Disaster |
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Moments after a commercial airline soared near O’Hare Airport, a wooden roof for an under-construction four‐story stadium, called the Rosemont Horizon, collapsed on workers. Twenty-six men were at the worksite, of those five died and 15 were injured. Speaking to the New York Times, a concrete worker described the horrific scene. “There were about 18 men working on the roof when a plane came over,” said James Pinkston. “Suddenly, everything began to vibrate. You could hear the roof cracking and then it started falling in.”
While the initial suspect was the plane flying overhead, the real cause of the Rosemont Horizon disaster was actually structural faults. According to an engineering case studies project, shoddy planning and missing bolts caused the unfinished roof to collapse. An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration revealed the unstable condition of the wood roof frame paired with over 53% of the required connection bolts missing from the building’s roof led to the collapse. Now called the Allstate Arena, the venue’s timber roof is supposed to muffle the sounds of planes flying overhead.
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The cast of “44 – THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL.” (Credit: Mackenzie Hilton) |
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Eli Bauman is a TV writer whose biggest credit may be the short-lived NBC series “Maya & Marty” with Maya Rudolph and Martin Short. Now, he's the writer of “44 – THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL,” which premiered in Los Angeles in 2023 and drops into Chicago right before the Democratic National Convention. WTTW News writer Marc Vitali interviews him here.
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Bauman’s Chicago-area ties: “My mother’s family is from Lake Forest, so I went there over the summer a lot. But then I spent the last three winters in Chicago. My wife is the showrunner of “The Bear,” so I’ve spent a lot of time here with our kids.”
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What to expect: [“44: The Obama Musical” is] “a story of the first term of the Obama presidency, but it does not adhere particularly to history or reality.
44 – THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL (As Told Through the Hazy Recollection of Joe Biden)” plays the Epiphany Center for the Arts at 201 S. Ashland Ave, Aug. 7-17. Buy tickets here. |
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Also From WTTW News |
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Learn more about advertising & sponsorship with WTTW. |
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Millennium Park Summer Film Series. (Patrick L. Pyszka / City of Chicago) |
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How about the Sangria Festival in Humboldt Park on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 17-18? There’s also the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest in Rogers Park this weekend, happening Friday through Sunday.
Peruse our exhaustive listings of every happening and event from the city to the burbs here. |
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Other News From Around Town |
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5:30 PM | 10:00 PM |
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Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more. |
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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