Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, June 16, 2016.
- Weather: The temperatures cool down
After a very hot and humid Wednesday, it will cool down considerably Thursday, with a high of 73 and a low of 63. It might be a bit windy. [AccuWeather]
- It’s not easy for the mayor’s security detail to keep Rahm safe
An interesting tidbit has already come out of testimony given in a federal lawsuit by Commander Bryan Thompson, the chief of the mayor’s security detail under both former mayor Richard M. Daley and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. According to Thompson, Rahm faces a lot more danger than Daley, and it’s harder to keep him and his family safe “due to current events.” “The threat level to the mayor is a lot higher,” he said in court. “A lot more people in the city hate him for various reasons, as opposed to Daley.” It’s noteworthy that Emanuel will have to give a deposition in the lawsuit because it’s “extremely rare for a sitting mayor to give sworn testimony in any setting,” according to the Tribune. The suit was filed by several Chicago cops who claim the mayor let them go from his security detail for political reasons. [Tribune]
- Lincoln Park alderman says Airbnb rentals are taking over the neighborhood
Alderman Michele Smith is concerned about investors buying up Lincoln Park properties just to rent them out on home-sharing site Airbnb. “There are no limitations on the abilities of investors to buy up entire neighborhoods, which is what they’re doing in mine,” she said Wednesday. Smith was not happy with the Emanuel administration’s changes to a proposed ordinance regulating the home-sharing industry, calling it “a step backward.” “Unfortunately, the administration is allowing itself to be run over by these bullies,” she said. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Ebony and Jet magazines sold by Johnson Publishing to private equity firm
Johnson Publishing has sold its two signature magazines, Ebony and Jet, to Clear View Group, a private equity firm based in Austin, Texas. Fortunately, both magazines’ headquarters will remain in Chicago and most of the staff will keep their jobs. Johnson Publishing is not defunct: it will continue running Fashion Fair Cosmetics and the Ebony photo archive, which the company is also trying to sell. [Associated Press via Crain’s Chicago Business]
- Controversial deportation of suburban family gets attention from legislators
Three local members of Congress are asking for a review of the deportation of undocumented Mexican immigrant Reynold Garcia and his family. U.S. reps Tammy Duckworth, Jan Schakowsky, and Luis Gutierrez claim that Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials “lured” Garcia away from a church service in Palatine by lying and saying that his friend had been in a car accident. The officials may have even impersonated the Palatine police officers without the department’s permission. “While the use of deception may be legal, I think there are questions of right and wrong, of justice, of ethics, that the American people—I think—would think that this was not the right thing to do,” Schakowsky said. [WBEZ]