Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, January 19, 2017.
- Former police chief McCarthy subpoenaed in Sandi Jackson-Jesse Jackson Jr. divorce
Former Chicago Police superintendent Garry McCarthy and two other former police officers have been subpoenaed in the divorce between ex-congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and former alderman Sandi Jackson. Jackson Jr.’s legal team is asking the men for information regarding gifts given to Sandi Jackson. McCarthy and former cop James Love are also required to “provide information about any hotel stays, trips or vacations they have taken with the former alderman or members of her family,” according to the Sun-Times. Sandi Jackson reportedly said that her estranged husband is “so desperate.” McCarthy told CBS 2 Chicago that he is “not going to comment on anything that stupid.” [Sun-Times]
- Rauner says he’s too busy for Trump inauguration as several local congressmen boycott it
Governor Bruce Rauner won’t be attending the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., Friday, and he says skipping the big event won’t affect Illinoisans. “People understand in Washington and around the country that Illinois has big challenges, and they know and respect the fact that I am 100 percent focused in Illinois, working on getting a balanced budget with structural change to the system,” he told reporters. “And they respect that and they appreciate it.” A few local Democratic members of Congress, including representatives Mike Quigley and Luis Gutierrez, are boycotting the inauguration. [NBC Chicago] [Tribune]
- Lin-Manuel Miranda says he will star in a Hamilton performance in Chicago to honor pardoned Puerto Rican activist
Hamilton creator and former star of the New York City production Lin-Manuel Miranda will reprise his role as Alexander Hamilton for a Chicago performance in honor of President Barack Obama’s pardon of Puerto Rican activist Oscar López Rivera. Rivera’s been serving a 70-year prison sentence in Chicago since 1981 but will be now be released from custody in May. He ran Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, which supported Puerto Rican independence and staged several bombings throughout the U.S. in the 1970s—including one planted on June 7, 1976, in a garbage can outside the theater at Monroe and Dearborn Streets, where at least one person leaving a performance of Sherlock Holmes (featuring Leonard Nimoy) was injured. The venue is now the PrivateBank Theatre, where Hamilton is playing. [USA Today] [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Independent Police Review Authority releases video of deadly police shooting
The Independent Police Review Authority has released footage of the fatal shooting of Darius Jones, 26, by two police officers in West Englewood on November 18, 2016. Surveillance video of the shooting shows a man presumed to be Jones fire a bullet into a crowd of people. Then a police squad car pulls up as the gunman heads in the “general direction” of the car with the weapon in his hand, then the two officers start shooting the man, according to the Sun-Times. IPRA is still reviewing the case, and a tactical response report from the police says the cops “acted within Departmental guidelines.” [Sun-Times]
- In a tent city in Uptown, the homeless live by its rules
About 18 homeless people call the tent city below the Wilson Avenue overpass in Uptown home. In order to continue living there, everyone has a role in the community—for example, a person is assigned to sweep the area every morning to keep it clean. “We’re trying to form some type of organized community where we work together, for however long we going to be here,” Louis “Abdul” Jones, who works on the community cleaning detail, told WBEZ. “I designed it personally because I live here. They live here. We live here. We don’t want to live here.” [WBEZ]
- Chicago Justice will premiere March 1 on NBC
Producer Dick Wolf has already given us the NBC shows Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, and Chicago Med. Now his latest, Chicago Justice, is getting ready to premiere. The show will air its first episode on NBC March 1 as part of a three-show crossover with Fire and P.D. “Fire is the crotch, P.D. is the muscle, Med is the heart, and this show is the brain,” Wolf said at the Winter Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday. [Deadline Hollywood]