Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
- Weather: The warm-up finally begins
There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Wednesday is the start of a much-needed warm-up, with a high of 55 and a low of 39. It will be a great weather day, with sunshine and no rain. [AccuWeather]
- Spike in shootings started when the Laquan McDonald video was released
The release of the Laquan McDonald police dashcam video has had a major impact on crime in Chicago, according to a new analysis by FiveThirtyEight. Since the shocking footage was released on November 24, 2015, gun violence has risen significantly and the number of arrests made by police has decreased. Gun violence is surging all over the city; another teenage boy was shot and killed by police in the Homan Square area Monday night. [FiveThirtyEight ] [WGN]
- Newly appointed alderman is a friend of Barack and Michelle
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has appointed Sophia King to replace former Fourth Ward alderman Will Burns. King—who chairs a nonprofit and has been active in the charter school movement—says that she hopes her record, not her friendship with the Obamas, got her the position. [Tribune]
- Interim CPD chief Eddie Johnson getting the fast-track treatment
New Chicago Police Department interim superintendent Eddie Johnson has proven to be a rare popular choice with aldermen, cops, and community leaders alike. Now a City Council panel would like to avoid the tedious selection process and fast-track his appointment to the permanent job. “We don’t have time to play,” Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. “People are dying in our wards.” [ABC News via Associated Press]
- Rahm on the offensive in ongoing war against rats
Rats are proliferating, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hoping that adding ten additional crews to the rodent control bureau over the next two years will help combat the problem. The issue is so serious that he’s also hoping to create a new anti-rat task force. [ABC7 Chicago]
- Tickets for Hamilton‘s Chicago run will be superexpensive
Individual tickets for the Chicago production of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton aren’t on sale yet, but they won’t be cheap. In New York tickets, which range from $67 to $477 at face value, go for as much as $2,000 apiece on the secondary market. According to the New York Times, when producer Jeffrey Sellers saw the initial proposed ticket prices for Chicago, he told staff to raise them, because Chicagoans are “just as rich as the folks in New York.” [New York Times]