Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Wednesday, October 4, 2017.
- Emanuel criticizes Trump administration’s response to Las Vegas massacre: ‘Take responsibility and accountability for something’
On Tuesday Mayor Rahm Emanuel criticized the Trump administration’s response to the Las Vegas massacre. “I really do wish once in this administration, they’d take responsibility and accountability for something,” Emanuel said, referring to the administration’s refusal to address gun control policy. Governor Bruce Rauner, asked about gun control measures, declined to talk about specific policies but said he’s open to a “dialogue” on the issue: “No easy answers, but I look forward to having the ongoing dialogue and see what we can come together as a society to deal with mental illness, deal with behaviors that are so outrageous like to try and prevent it.” [Tribune]
- Inspector general report: Chicago Police Department wasting money on overtime pay
The Chicago Police Department has been wasting millions of dollars on overtime pay for police officers, and the extra hours have caused burnout in the force, according to a new report from Chicago inspector general Joseph Ferguson. “CPD’s management of overtime speaks directly to how inefficient management can lead to wide scale waste and a culture of abuse,” Chicago inspector general Joseph Ferguson said in a statement. The audit also found that from 2014 to 2016 officers were allowed to approve their own overtime payments, and that over the same period $40 million in overtime was approved by “peers or subordinates of the member who earned the overtime.” [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Las Vegas gunman’s notorious bank-robber father lived in Chicago
Benjamin Paddock Jr., the father of Las Vegas massacre gunman Stephen Paddock, was a notorious bank robber who made the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted List, and records show he started his life of crime while living in Chicago. He also ended up in Illinois state prisons twice. “There were records of him attending high school in Chicago,” Travis Gross, executive director of the historical society in Paddock’s birthplace of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, told the Tribune. “By the time he was in his early 20s, it looked like he was already into a life of crime.” While living on the northwest side, the 25-year-old “confessed stealing 12 automobiles in the last 18 months and selling them for an average of $1,200 each,” according to a Tribune article from 1946. [Tribune]
- Eddie Johnson returns to CPD following kidney transplant
Chicago Police Department superintendent Eddie Johnson hopes to return to work full-time soon following an August 30 kidney transplant. His doctors haven’t yet cleared him to return to the high-pressure job. “My recovery is coming along well,” Johnson said. “My doctors are actually kind of amazed at how quickly I bounced back.” [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Mark Wahlberg hosting a faith night with Cardinal Cupich
Catholic cardinal Blase Cupich has recruited actor Mark Wahlberg, who’s Catholic, to host a faith night called (re)Encounter at UIC Pavilion October 20. The event’s goal is to encourage young people to join the Catholic Church.”My Catholic faith has always been a true anchor in my life that supports everything I do; my wish is for all young people to embrace their faith and put it into action,” Wahlberg said in a statement. [Tribune]
- Chicagoans share their stories of narrowly avoiding Las Vegas massacre
Several Chicagoans narrowly avoided the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Sunday evening that left at least 59 people dead and 527 injured. Oak Park native Kyle Harris was at the festival watching Jason Aldean perform when he “started hearing something like firecrackers,” he told the Sun-Times. “People are going to start freaking out. There’s going to be a stampede. I need to move away from the situation,” he said. “I somehow had the wherewithal, before all the mess started, to know to get out of the way.” [Sun-Times]