Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
- Emanuel, Johnson will continue with police reforms recommended by the DOJ
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration will continue implementing Chicago Police Department reforms recommended by the Department of Justice in 2016 despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s having ordered a review of agreements between the Department of Justice’s civil rights division and local police departments, according to the Tribune. Sessions’s review of the reform agreements made when President Barack Obama was in office has observers wondering whether they’ll last. Emanuel and Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson promised that the city and the CPD are still committed to reform. “We can only speak for our intentions, we can’t speak for the federal government’s,” Emanuel and Johnson said in a joint statement. “The reforms we have made over the past year are built on the principles of partnership and trust between our residents and our officers, and they laid the foundation for the 2017 reform plan we outlined just a few weeks ago.” [Tribune]
- Anxiety about deportation has caused sales at Little Village restaurant to drop by as much as 40 percent
Mi Tierra has been a fixture in Little Village for more than 30 years, but fear and anxiety over deportation under President Donald Trump has led to sales dropping by about 30 to 40 percent, according to DNAinfo Chicago. “People are scared,” Mi Terra owner Ezequiel Fuentes said. The restaurant employs 100 people, and Fuentes has had to cut hours though he hasn’t yet had to lay anyone off. The fears about immigration crackdowns are also affecting other businesses in the neighborhood. “It has a trickle-down effect,” the Little Village Chamber of Commerce’s executive director Jaime di Paulo said. “I’ve seen some shops closed. Those shops had an employee that is now unemployed, and is drawing money from the unemployment office, I’d imagine. Those shop owners are not paying taxes. Little Village is too important to the economy of Chicago.” [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Pope Francis has written a letter about Chicago’s violence
Pope Francis has been praying for the victims of Chicago violence and wrote a letter to the city and Cardinal Blase Cupich about the issue. “Sadly, as you have told me, people of different ethnic, economic and social backgrounds suffer discrimination, indifference and injustice, and violence today,” the head of the Catholic Church wrote in the letter. “We must reject this exclusion and isolation, and not think of any group as ‘others,’ but rather as our own brothers and sisters. This openness of heart and mind must be taught and nurtured in the homes and in schools.” Cupich read the letter out loud at a youth center in Austin and announced that he’ll be leading a “walk for peace” through Englewood on April 14, Good Friday. [Sun-Times]
- Illinois supreme court won’t let Rauner bypass state employee union appeal
Governor Bruce Rauner’s request to skip the appeals process on the issue of imposing contract terms on the largest state employee union was denied by the Illinois supreme court Tuesday, according to the Sun-Times. Rauner has been in a legal battle with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union for months, and in March asked the court to allow the case to bypass an appellate court in order to save taxpayer money. “Governor Rauner should stop wasting time and money on costly court fights and instead do his own job, working constructively to find common ground,” the executive director of the AFSCME Council 31, Roberta Lynch, said in a statement. [Sun-Times]
- The head of the local field ATF bureau understands the impact of violence
Celinez Nunez, the head of Chicago field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was inspired to go into law enforcement after her 19-year-old cousin was murdered in the city. Nunez, who grew up on the northwest side, discusses the city’s gun violence issues, her background, gangs, and what she’s working on in a fascinating interview with WBEZ. [WBEZ]
- Chance the Rapper fans want him to run for mayor
Chance the Rapper is being recruited to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel on in 2019. An enthusiastic group of fans has started chano4mayor.com in order to convince the popular rapper to run. Even if he doesn’t enter the 2019 race, the fans want him to get involved. “We would be very happy if he’d become more politically involved and he endorsed a candidate who stands up for the same things that he stands up for in his music,” 23-year-old Chicagoan Bea Malsky, who’s involved in the recruitment campaign, told the Sun-Times. The rapper’s father, Ken Bennett, served as Emanuel’s first deputy chief of staff and director of the Office of Public Engagement. [Sun-Times]