Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, November 22, 2016.
- Weather: Cloudy and rainy
It will be a gloomy Tuesday, with clouds and rain. The high is expected to be 45, with a low of 39. A shower is likely in the afternoon, and the rain will continue on and off during the evening. [AccuWeather]
- O’Hare Airport workers set to strike Tuesday, November 29
Workers at O’Hare International Airport are waiting until after Thanksgiving to strike. Around 500 workers, including baggage handlers, will strike Tuesday, November 29, as part of a national campaign for a $15 minimum wage. [Tribune]
- Rahm appoints a new chief of staff
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has named Joe Deal as his new chief of staff, replacing Eileen Mitchell. Deal has worked at City Hall for 17 years, most recently as deputy chief of staff and chief operating officer for the city, and has “a wealth of city experience and institutional knowledge,” according to Emanuel. Deal will start December 1. Mitchell stepped down to pursue other opportunities, according to the mayor’s office. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Newly ordained Catholic cardinal Blase Cupich tackles gun violence, brings Pope Francis’s vision to Chicago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Governor Bruce Rauner, Senator Dick Durbin and Illinois supreme court justice Anne Burke were all at the Vatican in Rome over the weekend to watch Pope Francis officially make Blase Cupich a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The Atlantic published an interesting feature on Cupich’s important role in Chicago and his efforts to curb gun violence. “Pope Francis often speaks about his vision of a Catholic Church that is focused on the margins of society, where people have the most pain and need,” Emma Green writes. “Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that the man who has been called America’s Pope Francis is assigned to Chicago. This is a city where the need is undeniably great—and where the viability of Francis’s vision is being tested.” [Atlantic]
- Hair salon employees in Illinois will be required to go through domestic violence training
Licensed hairstylists and cosmetologists in Illinois will be required to take an hour-long seminar on domestic abuse and sexual assault education when they renew their license every two years under a new law that takes effect January 1. Customers often confide in their hairstylists and other beauty professionals, so the law’s proponents thought that the training would be useful. “We’re not only hairdressers; we feel like counselors, psychologists,” Angela Henderson, the manager of a salon in Crystal Lake, told the Northwest Herald. “Clients feel comfortable with you, and so they tend to open up more.” [Northwest Herald]
- Report: Only 10 percent of Chicago recycling avoids landfills
Only about 10 percent of the waste Chicagoans put into recycling each year is actually recycled, according to DNAinfo Chicago; the rest ends up in landfills. Chicago is significantly lagging behind other cities in this regard: about 80 percent of recycling in San Francisco is recycled, and it’s at around 60 percent in Seattle. But the Department of Streets & Sanitation is reportedly working on improving recycling numbers, which are hurt by people throwing garbage into recycling bins. [DNAinfo Chicago]