Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, October 17, 2017.
- Chicago named the rat capital of the country for the third consecutive year
Pest control company Orkin has named Chicago as the rat capital of the U.S. for the third year in a row. Orkin made its determination based on the number of rat treatments ordered for residential and commercial properties in the Chicago area from September 2016 until September 2017. Los Angeles was named the second-most rat-infested city, New York the third. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Mourners remember math teacher killed by crossfire in Rogers Park
Rogers Park resident Cynthia Trevillion, 64, was shot and killed by crossfire while walking on Morse Avenue Friday evening. Friends and family of the Waldorf School math teacher gathered to remember her at Christian Community Church Monday before her Tuesday funeral. “She was an extremely generous soul [who showed] warmth and empathy to all who know her. She has many, many friendships,” said her husband, John Trevillion, who was walking by the Red Line stop with her when she was fatally shot. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Barack Obama drops in on organizing class at Gary Comer Youth Center
Former president Barack Obama surprised about 150 people at Gary Comer Youth Center Saturday with an appearance at an organizing class hosted by his foundation. “When I left the White House, I thought to myself, ‘What’s the single thing that I could do that’s the most impactful in this next phase of my life?'” Obama told the group of 18- to 24-year-olds. “I realized that the best way for me to get to that is to train the next generation of leaders and to pass the baton, so you all can make change in your communities.” [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Lurie Children’s seeks permission to add 24 more beds for cancer patients
Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is asking the state for permission to add 24 beds for cancer patients. “We have been seeing so many more children with cancer and blood disorders the past several years that we need to double the number of our beds,” Lurie spokeswoman Julie Pesch told the Tribune in an e-mail. The hospital has seen a 43 percent increase in transported patients over five years. [Tribune]
- Harvey Weinstein’s unlikely 1985 Bears connection
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein didn’t have many Chicago connections, but he did have pictures of himself with former 1985 Chicago Bears players and Super Bowl champions Jim McMahon and William “the Refrigerator” Perry in his office at one point. The photo was taken by local photographer Linda Matlow, who was hired by Weinstein to work on a Sister Sledge music video shoot featuring Bears players at Soldier Field in the 1980s. Matlow spotted her picture hanging in Weinstein’s office in a photograph featured in a recent Vanity Fair story. Weinstein is accused of sexually harassing and/or assaulting scores of women who worked with him, among them Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow. [Sun-Times]
- University of Chicago Divinity School becomes first in U.S. to appoint a Jewish dean
When the University of Chicago recently named Laurie Zoloth dean of its divinity school, it became the first in the U.S. to be headed by a Jewish dean. “We normally think of Jews as deeply integrated in the American academic system, so it is unusual that there is a discipline or an area where one could be the first Jewish academic anything,” she told USA Today. [USA Today]