Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, October 14, 2016. Have a great weekend!
- Weather: A beautiful Friday with warmer temperatures
Friday will be gorgeous, with a high of 65 and a low of 56. It will be mostly sunny during the day and clear throughout the evening. [AccuWeather]
- The Hillary Clinton campaign wanted to move the 2016 Illinois primary
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign team wanted to move the Illinois primary from March to April or May, according to campaign chair John Podesta’s hacked e-mails released by Wikileaks. The campaign wanted former Obama White House chief of staff Bill Daley to ask Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan to move the primary to April or May, because they believed Clinton’s home state would help her in a close primary. “As we discussed, they don’t really care about being helpful and feel forgotten and neglected by POTUS,” her campaign manager Robby Mook wrote to Podesta in a November 2014 email. “The key point is that this is not an Obama ask, but a Hillary ask.” [Sun-Times]
- Honorary “Trump Plaza” sign near the Trump Tower is gone
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump no longer has an honorary street in Chicago. After Mayor Rahm Emanuel and 47 aldermen all agreed that the “Trump Plaza” sign should be removed due to his controversial campaign, the sign has disappeared. It’s not clear if it was removed by the city, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, or a thief, according to DNAinfo Chicago. “A representative for the Chicago City Clerk, which monitors local legislation, said the proposed ordinance wouldn’t become law till Nov. 9, barring mayoral intervention,” according to DNAinfo. [DNAinfo Chicago]
- Rahm looks ahead to a possible third term
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is only a year into his second term as mayor, but there are signs that he’s preparing for another run in February 2019. Emanuel told the Tribune that he has “every intention of running again” but he’ll have to discuss a final decision with his wife, Amy Rule. He also has “made a concerted push toward resolving three crucial issues that could determine whether he’s able to rehabilitate himself enough to run for re-election,” according to the newspaper. He compromised with the Chicago Teachers Union to avoid a strike Tuesday, introduced a new water and sewer bill tax to fund pensions, and pushed a new plan to hire hundreds of new cops and revamp police training. [Tribune]
- Report: Thousands of Cook County Jail inmates are in “indefinite detention” because they can’t pay bond
Thousands of inmates at the Cook County Jail are being held in “indefinite detention” because they can’t afford bond while they wait to go to trial, according to an investigative report by ABC 7 Chicago. A shocking 92 percent of the inmates at the jail have not been convicted but are just waiting to go to trial, the report says. “It means we are punishing people because they are poor,” Sharlyn Grace of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice said. [ABC 7 Chicago]
- Chicago’s become a hub for high-profile theater world premieres
There will be more than 30 world-premiere plays debuting in Chicago between now and late December, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. Premiering new works in Chicago instead of New York has become popular in the theater world for several reasons: Chicago is “less risk-averse,” there are plenty of talented actors, theatergoers are more “adventurous,” and the theaters aren’t as focused on making money, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer, whose Man in the Ring premiered at Court Theatre this fall. [Crain’s Chicago Business]