Welcome to the Reader’s morning briefing for Friday, September 9, 2016. Have a great weekend!
- Weather: An afternoon thunderstorm is possible
A thunderstorm is possible Friday afternoon, with more rain heading into the evening. Expect a high of 81 and a low of 69—plus humidity. [AccuWeather]
- The court battle over the 1966 unsolved murder of a U.S. senator’s daughter
The murder of Valerie Percy, the daughter of Republican U.S. senator Charles Percy, at the family home in Kenilworth in 1966 has never been solved. The mystery has started a court battle between Kenilworth police and a New York-based attorney who requested to view documents pertaining to the case under the Freedom of Information Act. A Cook County judge has ruled that Kenilworth police must turn over some of the documents so she can decide whether or not the 20,000-page case file should be available to the public. Many of the widely reported facts about the high-profile case are incorrect, according to attorneys for the North Shore suburb. [Tribune]
- Cook County won’t charge officers involved in July 2015 death of handcuffed suspect
The Chicago police officers involved with the July 2015 arrest of Heriberto Godinez won’t be charged with his death, Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez announced Thursday. Godinez died because of cocaine and alcohol poisoning, with physical stress from the arrest as “a significant contributing factor,” according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Cook County prosecutors would not have been able to to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that restraining the suspect caused his death or was unjustified, according to Alvarez. [Sun-Times]
- City Council committee approves controversial water and sewer tax increases
The City Council Finance Committee approved increases in the city’s water and sewer taxes Thursday. The proposal would increase water taxes by 30 percent in phases over the next five years. Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes the revenue will raise hundreds of millions of dollars for city pension funds. One opponent, 17th Ward alderman David Moore, called the tax “regressive,” according to DNAinfo Chicago. “We can’t keep asking people to give more when they are actually getting less,” he said. If the full City Council approves the tax hike, it could, among other things, significantly increase the price of doing laundry at a laundromat. [DNAinfo Chicago] [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Construction starts on the Vista Tower,”a $1 billion vote of confidence in the future of Chicago” by China
The ground has been broken for the 93-story Vista Tower, which will change the skyline of Chicago when it’s completed. The Lakeshore East skyscraper is “the biggest ever real estate investment by a Chinese company in Chicago, as well as in the U.S.,” the chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce USA, Chen Xu, said during the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday. The massive project is a “is a $1 billion vote of confidence in the future of Chicago,” Chen Guocai, the vice president of Wanda Commercial Properties, said, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. [Crain’s Chicago Business]
- Man convicted in Brown’s Chicken murders asks for hearing about new evidence
There’s new evidence in the 1993 Brown’s Chicken massacre, according to attorneys for James Degorski, who was convicted of all seven murders in 2009. Degorski claims that the prosecution’s key witness, his former girlfriend Anne Lockett, lied in order to obtain a monetary reward of about $50,000, and he’s asking for a new hearing. [Tribune]
- Media reporter Robert Feder will keep reporting despite being cut by Tronc
Robert Feder has been reporting on the Chicago media scene for decades, but his last employer, Tronc (formerly known as Tribune Publishing), has cut its licensing and marketing agreement for RobertFeder.com. Feder promises that he will keep on reporting, and the good news is that his site is no longer behind the Tribune paywall. [Robert Feder]