Category: Breaking Chicago News

CHICAGO URBAN DAILY

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— Friday night, “Amir Shakur Speaks: The Urban Report” turned its cameras on Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant, airing an “After Hours” panel on alleged workplace harassment and what the broadcast calls the fight for Black worker equity.

The episode, titled “Breaking The Culture of Silence at Ford,” featured former Ford worker and whistleblower Tashay Myrick — identified on the broadcast as Illinois President of NABD — alongside panelists Tracy Happybnme Potter, Talia Pippion, and Chamair Jenkins.

According to the broadcast, Ford has paid out “$30M+ in settlements” connected to workplace claims, yet in the panel’s words, “nothing changed.” The discussion framed the issue as a culture of silence inside the plant — and a call for workers to speak out.

Workplace allegations at the Chicago Assembly Plant are not new, but Friday’s broadcast put them back in the spotlight, with Myrick urging accountability and the panel demanding justice for workers.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for continuing coverage.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

🎥 Watch the full episode: Breaking The Culture of Silence at Ford | Amir Shakur Speaks: The Urban Report

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— A CTA employee was stabbed to death Thursday afternoon at a West Side Green Line station, and the suspect is still out there.

The stabbing happened around 3 p.m. at the Damen Green Line station, in the 2000 block of West Lake Street. Chicago police say a male suspect approached the CTA employee — a 41-year-old man — and got into a verbal altercation with him in the station’s mezzanine area. The argument escalated, and the suspect pulled out a sharp object and stabbed the employee in the neck. The suspect fled west from the station.

Officers found the employee unresponsive in a nearby room. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities have not released the employee’s identity, what sparked the altercation, or any description of the suspect. Chicago police and the CTA were expected to brief the media at a 6 p.m. Thursday news conference.

Transit violence keeps hitting the front page. A worker on the job, in broad daylight, in a station packed with cameras and passengers — and somebody walked away.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for updates on this developing story.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— A Palatine family’s nightmare is now in its second week, and Chicago is where the search is focused.

Alyssa Smith, 24, a restaurant worker from Palatine, vanished during a trip to Chicago with her boyfriend, according to her family. She was reported missing on Sept. 30 — three days after she last had contact with her mother, Rebecca Smith. Smith was last seen somewhere in the city’s 11th police district, described in a missing-person appeal as “somewhere between Cicero, Pulaski and Madison.” She has a Pennywise clown tattoo on her shoulder, and at the time of her disappearance was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, light khaki pants and white Adidas shoes.

Her family says Smith’s boyfriend, Jacob Ray Caso, a Crystal Lake tattoo artist, returned home without her on Oct. 1 and has been searching the area where she was last seen. Caso has posted desperate appeals online. “Time to come home b,” he wrote in a Facebook post Friday. “No one is mad at you.”

Palatine police say they’ve received reports that Smith may have been spotted in Grant Park downtown and on the West Side. Family posters cite anonymous tips that she has been seen alive, and mention a “possible black eye” — something police have not confirmed.

The circumstances behind her disappearance remain unclear. A family searching, a city this big, and more questions than answers. If you know anything about where Alyssa Smith is, say something.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for updates on this developing story.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— Eight South Side storefronts are sweeping up glass this morning after a weekend of smash-and-grab burglaries, and business owners say they’re fed up.

Chicago police are investigating break-ins at five businesses along 75th Street in the 200 to 500 blocks early Monday morning — roughly between 3:30 and 5 a.m. Among the targets: Soul Veg City, Nadia’s Beauty Salon, Paris Cleaners and Flowers First. Cash registers were stolen from at least three of them. At Soul Veg City, surveillance video shows a suspect breaking in, grabbing the cash register — and a slice of cake — before running east on 75th Street. At Nadia’s, surveillance images captured one of the suspects, though the owner says the thieves left empty-handed, leaving behind damage and a mess.

The weekend started worse for Bronzeville. Three businesses along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive — Bronzeville Soul, Hair Experts Bronzeville and Peach’s Restaurant — were hit within a few hours early Sunday. Bronzeville Soul owner Mario Coleman says the thieves stole the register, wrecked the point-of-sale system and damaged food. It was the second burglary at his shop in about a year. At Hair Experts, owner Nicholas Byrd says burglars broke through the glass, ransacked the shop and stole expensive equipment. Peach’s Restaurant was damaged badly enough to stay closed for days.

Ald. William Hall (6th) called an emergency meeting for 75th Street business owners Tuesday morning at Soul Veg City, with Chicago police and local Special Service Area partners invited. Owners say they want more police presence — and are talking about bars on windows and doors and more security officers through the SSA.

No arrests have been announced. Area Two detectives are investigating.

Eight businesses, one weekend, zero answers. South Side owners build community block by block — the least the city can do is protect the block.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for updates on this developing story.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— A family is shattered and a South Side neighborhood is grieving after a 7-year-old girl was stabbed to death in broad daylight by a stranger.

Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon was walking along South Cottage Grove Avenue near 86th Street in East Chatham with her older sister around 11:55 a.m. Saturday when a woman she did not know came up behind her and stabbed her multiple times in the back with a sharp object, according to the Chicago Police Department. The child was rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Bystanders refused to let the attacker walk away. Witnesses chased the woman down and detained her until officers arrived, according to reporting from NBC Chicago and WGN 9. The suspect, who has not been publicly identified, was treated for injuries she sustained while being detained and is now in police custody. Charges are expected, and investigators are working to determine a motive and whether the girl and the suspect knew each other.

“I am deeply saddened by the senseless stabbing of a 7 year old child in our neighborhood,” said Alderwoman Michelle Harris. “My heart goes out to her family, friends, and everyone who is affected by this horrific incident.”

A 7-year-old walking her own block with her sister. Think about that. Chicago, our babies have to be safe on the sidewalk. Hold this family in your prayers — and hold this city to a higher standard.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for updates on this developing story.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— It’s gameday in Chicago. The 2-1 Bears host the 1-2 New York Jets today at Soldier Field, with kickoff at 1 p.m. ET on FOX — and the Bears will once again be without their starting quarterback.

Caleb Williams is sidelined for a second straight game with a hamstring injury, after failing to practice this week. That has kept the quarterback question burning all week around Halas Hall, with backup Tyson Bagent fielding questions about stepping in and reports swirling about who gets the call under center.

The Bears aren’t the only ones banged up. The Jets arrive without starting running back Breece Hall, who is out with a quad injury and listed as week-to-week, while rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq is questionable with a back injury. On the Chicago side, there was a sigh of relief this week on the D’Andre Swift front, with positive updates easing injury concerns.

The Jets come in at 1-2 and desperate. The Bears come in at 2-1 and shorthanded. Soldier Field should be loud either way.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for postgame coverage.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— A fourth person has been charged in the deadly attack that took the life of 29-year-old Kyle Bickham on a moving CTA train.

Chicago police said a 15-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday in the 7300 block of South Racine Avenue and identified as an additional offender in the September 7 attack. Because of his age, his name has not been released.

Authorities say the teen used force to push Bickham from a moving train in the 0-100 block of West 69th Street. According to prosecutors, Bickham was riding home from work on a Red Line train when an altercation broke out with four other passengers. The group allegedly forced open the doors of the train’s last car while it was moving and pushed him onto the tracks, where he was struck by a southbound train and killed.

Three people had already been charged in the case: 19-year-old Katlar Parchman, 18-year-old Christian McBounds, and another 15-year-old. McBounds faces first-degree murder charges, and Parchman and the other juvenile are also charged with murder. Police say the investigation remains ongoing.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily as this story develops.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)—Mayor Brandon Johnson is proposing a $260.8 million global settlement to close the book on 16 police misconduct lawsuits tied to disgraced former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara — and to compensate 17 plaintiffs who say they were framed for murders they did not commit.

Forty-three people, including three women, have been exonerated after serving prison time for murder convictions built on Guevara’s work in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of them called Humboldt Park home.

The price tag for the city keeps climbing. Lawsuits tied to Guevara have already cost Chicago and Cook County at least $80 million. In February, the City Council approved another $29.2 million in Guevara-linked settlements, and a few weeks ago another $14 million was added to the pile.

This package deal lands on the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the City Council’s Finance Committee. It arrives courtesy of outgoing Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, who delivered the proposal on her way out the door and briefed council members Thursday in what Finance Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) called Richardson-Lowry’s “swan song.”

Dowell told the Sun-Times the bundled approach is the smart play: “Any time we can put them all together and package them and get a better settlement amount, it’s best for the taxpayers.”

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily as the Finance Committee takes up the proposal Monday — and as the city reckons with one of the darkest chapters in its police history.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.

NEWS FLASH

CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)—The South Side just did the impossible, and it did it with swagger.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros 7-3 on Wednesday night to sweep their American League wild-card series — the franchise’s first playoff series win since sweeping those same Astros in the 2005 World Series.

It took 21 years. It took a 121-loss season two years ago. And it took a team nobody outside 35th and Shields believed in. The White Sox are the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth — and now they’ve won a round.

Chicago jumped on Astros ace Hunter Brown for four runs in the first inning, then held off a Houston rally — three solo homers from Jeremy Peña, Cam Smith and Jose Altuve, the 28th postseason homer of Altuve’s career — before second baseman Chase Meidroth crushed a three-run homer in the sixth to break it open.

“I’m proud of the guys,” manager Will Venable said. “They’re probably the only ones in this country that believed that they could be in this spot.”

Next up: the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, beginning Saturday, October 3, in Cleveland.

Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily for ALDS coverage and everything from the South Side celebration.

Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.