Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, March 23, 2017.
- City Council expected to renew “sanctuary city” status next week, ask for protections for veterans and “Dreamers”
A resolution to renew Chicago’s “sanctuary city” status was approved by the City Council Human Relations Committee Wednesday, and it’s expected to be voted on by the full council March 29. It’s the second time that the city’s status as a place where local law enforcement declines to provide information to immigration officials under most circumstances has been renewed by the City Council since President Donald Trump took office. But this resolution also requests that military veterans and immigrants who came to the U.S. as children not be deported. Around 183,000 Chicago residents are undocumented immigrants, according to estimates. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Former museum executives propose bringing American Sports Museum to Chicago
Two former Chicago executives want to bring an American Sports Museum to Chicago. The men behind the effort are Marc Lapides, formerly chief marketing officer at the Adler Planetarium, and Roger Germann, a former executive vice president at the Shedd Aquarium, according to the Tribune. They’re hoping to build a 100,000-square-foot museum that’s close to downtown and easily accessible by public transportation. A $50 million fund-raising campaign for the project is under way. “Sports is something that really connects us all,” Lapides told the Tribune. “This is a museum that will welcome everybody.” [Tribune]
- Illinois house votes down bill to make former President Obama’s birthday a holiday
Former president Barack Obama’s birthday won’t become a state holiday after a bill proposing to create one on August 4 fell short by six votes in the Illinois house. With only 54 legislators in the house voting yes, it won’t go on to the Illinois senate. “President Barack Obama, he did great work for the state of Illinois and our country,” says Representative Sonya Harper, one of the bill’s cosponsors. “I believe we need to do our part in preserving that history.” [Tribune]
- 24-year-old man who was featured on Chicagoland shot to death in Roseland
Jason Barrett, who starred in the CNN documentary series Chicagoland, was shot to death in Roseland Monday. The 24-year-old’s story of trying to get out jail for robbery early, with the help of Fenger High School principal Liz Dozier, was featured on the 2014 series. Dozier believed in Barrett’s ability to get past the obstacles he faced in Roseland. “She really saw something in me,” he said. “It was crazy. I ain’t seen nothing in me.” [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Chicago artist leads protest against controversial Emmett Till painting at the Whitney Museum in New York
A controversial painting by artist Dana Schutz based on the open-coffin photographs of Chicago teen Emmett Till, who was lynched in Mississippi by white men in the 1950s, has led to protests at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Artist (and former Reader intern) Parker Bright has been leading the silent and peaceful protest by standing in front of the painting to block it from view in the Whitney Biennial exhibition. “The subject matter is not Schutz’s,” one of the other protesters and artists, Hannah Black, wrote in a message on Facebook signed by more than 30 other artists. “White free speech and white creative freedom have been founded on the constraint of others, and are not natural rights. The painting must go.” [The New York Times]
- Before Ventra cards, there were CTA tokens. What happened to them?
Chicagoans didn’t always use Ventra cards to get around on CTA trains and buses. Before the digital era, public transportation riders were forced to use old-school tokens. WBEZ’s Curious City chronicles the history of the tokens—and the CTA itself—and what happened to them. [WBEZ]
Correction: The photo caption above has been amended to correctly reflect Luis Gomez’s status. He is an undocumented immigrant, not a “Dreamer.”