Daywatch: Johnson launches task force on reparations for Black Chicagoans

Good morning, Chicago. Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

Good morning, Chicago.

Mayor Brandon Johnson launched a task force yesterday to examine implementing a reparations program for Black Chicagoans, casting the move as the latest step in his administration’s agenda focused on racial justice.

Under Johnson’s new executive order, the commission will conduct an examination of “all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to present day and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The announcement came after Johnson earmarked $500,000 in the 2024 budget toward studying the issue.

Specific areas of harm toward Black Chicagoans that the announcement listed include housing, health, education, mass incarceration, policing and more. In his statement, Johnson nodded to the upcoming Juneteenth holiday and said the moment to act on rectifying “the legacy of chattel slavery and Jim Crow laws” is now, noting that Black Chicagoans still suffer disparities in life expectancy, unemployment and more.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Alice Yin.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

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Half a million immigrants could eventually get US citizenship under new plan from President Biden

The White House announced today that the Biden administration will, in the coming months, allow certain spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually, citizenship. The move could affect upwards of half a million immigrants, according to senior administration officials.

Alderman resumes campout near open-air drug market after weekend shooting halted his publicity campaign

A South Side alderman temporarily halted his publicity campaign to have the city address an open-air drug market in his ward after a weekend shooting occurred a block from where he was camping out in a vacant lot in West Englewood.

Ald. David Moore, 17th, said he resumed his efforts Monday, one day after the members of his staff packed up their campground that they established Friday in the 1200 block of West 73rd Place to get the city to address an open-air drug market in the area.

Violence intervention at street level getting funding boost in ‘unique moment’ for Chicago

Dozens of anti-violence advocates, street outreach workers and other community figureheads gathered on the West Side to announce a new injection of hundreds of millions of dollars that will be used to fund community violence-intervention methods.

Prosecutors recommend 15 years in prison for former Outcome Health CEO

Former Outcome CEO and co-founder Rishi Shah is scheduled to be sentenced June 25, after a jury found him guilty on 19 of 22 counts in April 2023. Co-founder and former President Shradha Agarwal and Brad Purdy, the company’s former chief operating officer and chief financial officer, are scheduled for sentencing June 26 and June 27, respectively.

Government prosecutors are seeking 15 years in prison for Shah, and 10 years in prison for Agarawal and Purdy, and want the three to pay $455 million in restitution.

US Rep. Robin Kelly, area mayors stress sustainability in renewed push for south suburban airport

Following the passage of a bill in the Illinois General Assembly paving the way for public and private funding to develop an airport in Chicago’s south suburbs, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly and other government officials gathered Monday to outline their goals for the potential project.

Environmental groups and farmers alike have raised concerns about the potential impact of operating a cargo airport and warehouses near Peotone to allow the Will County area to cash in on the increased demand of fast shipping from companies such as Amazon.

AFC North to be featured on in-season ‘Hard Knocks’ after the Chicago Bears’ run during training camp

The division best known for heated rivalries and star quarterbacks will be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” TV series this season. It’s the first time the Emmy Award-winning series has chronicled an entire division.

No lie: Perfectly preserved centuries-old cherries unearthed at George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Dozens of bottles of cherries and berries — impossibly preserved in storage pits uncovered from the cellar of his mansion on the banks of the Potomac River — were discovered during an archaeological dig connected to a restoration project.

Review of ‘My New Yorks’ at Art Institute: When Georgia O’Keeffe lived in the city

You think you know an artist, writes Lori Waxman.

Georgia O’Keeffe, the mother of American modernism, painted skulls and flowers, often in disarmingly sensuous close-up, as well as the monumental desert landscape surrounding her home and studio in rural New Mexico.

While that’s true, it’s only part of the story. A fuller account of O’Keeffe’s tale is told in “Georgia O’Keeffe: ‘My New Yorks,’” the Art Institute of Chicago’s summer blockbuster, curated by Sarah Kelly Oehler and Annelise K. Madsen.

Column: Do you know the name Billy Caldwell? New documentary is about a Native American intertwined with Chicago’s history

Sauganash is as lovely a neighborhood as there is in the city, writes Rick Kogan. Located on the Northwest Side, it is quiet and peaceful, with tall trees, wide lawns and fine homes. It is a place well suited for long walks and that was what Susan Kelsey was doing one day more than three decades ago when she came upon something that would lead her deep into the history of Chicago and introduce her to a man who would shadow the next three decades of her life, and shadows her still.