A double-digit increase in grocery prices: The Rundown

Good afternoon! It’s Friday, and I’m spending the weekend taking myself out to all the places people from dating apps weren’t interested in. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Grocery prices in Chicago have climbed double digits over the past year despite Trump’s vow to lower them

It’s been more than a year since my colleague Stephanie Zimmermann began tracking the monthly price of 35 common grocery items at Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s, Target and Walmart.

The verdict? What went up mostly hasn’t come down.

At Chicago’s largest grocery chain, Jewel-Osco, 18 items went up in price, 15 stayed the same and two — Land O’ Lakes butter and Doritos nacho cheese chips — dropped by 50 cents and 80 cents over the past 13 months.

Meanwhile, at Walmart, many of the items dropped in price more often than they rose compared to one year ago. Seventeen items decreased, totaling $9.60 in savings, seven items increased by a total of $5.81, seven stayed the same and four didn’t have enough data to be tracked. The prices of our items at Mariano’s and Target mostly increased or stayed flat.

Grocery expert Phil Lempert, known as the “Supermarket Guru,” said price increases that slammed consumers beginning in mid-2022 are mostly not going away. Climate change is affecting crops and cattle, tariffs are hitting imports and messing up farming forecasts, and immigration enforcement is impacting labor. Meanwhile, the large publicly owned food and consumer-product companies are under pressure to deliver growth for their stockholders. [Chicago Sun-Times]

2. DePaul and Loyola universities were accused of pushing low-income families toward hefty loans while helping wealthier students

The two Chicago schools are among 41 named in a national report highlighting those that appear to push lower-income families to take out loans they can’t afford, Mary Norkol writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Meanwhile, the universities offer attractive scholarships to wealthier families with high-achieving students. The amount parents take out in loans sometimes exceeds their annual earnings, the report from progressive think tank New America found.

The study focused on federal Parent PLUS loans, which parents can use to pay for tuition costs that can’t be covered out of pocket or through scholarships.

While most federal student loans have limits, families can take out Parent PLUS loans up to the total cost of attendance. But Parent PLUS loans, which have a high fixed interest rate and origination fees, weren’t designed for low-income families; they were meant to help middle- and upper-income families send their children to more prestigious and expensive schools.

DePaul officials said the university provides scholarships and grants and offers information about various loans, but families ultimately decide what to borrow. A Loyola University spokesperson said he wanted to review the study before commenting further. [Chicago Sun-Times]

3. Preckwinkle called on the Cook County state’s attorney to investigate ICE and the federal agents involved in Chicago-area shootings

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and more than half of the county’s commissioners have called on Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to file charges against federal immigration agents involved in shootings last year in the Chicago area — though Burke says her office has no jurisdiction.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said that while O’Neill Burke is “deeply concerned” about the “abhorrent behavior” of federal immigration agents nationwide, her office “does not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct and lacks jurisdiction over federal agencies, except in extremely narrow and limited circumstances.”

Burke has found herself between local leaders grasping at ways to hold federal agents accountable for wounding and killing residents, federal laws that often block those actions and the Trump’s administration block on use of force investigations. [Chicago Sun-Times]

4. ‘Hamilton’ is returning to Chicago. Here’s how to get lottery tickets

Forty tickets will be available for every performance for $10 each. (Single-ticket prices normally range from $63 to $208.)

The lottery will first open at 10 a.m. Feb. 20 and will close at 12 p.m. on Feb. 26 for tickets to performances March 4-8. Subsequent digital lotteries will begin each Friday and close the following Thursday for the upcoming week’s performances.

Fans need to use the “Hamilton” mobile app in order to enter the lottery. Winners will be notified between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. every Thursday for the upcoming week’s performances via email and mobile push notification. Winners will have two hours to claim and pay for their tickets.

“Hamilton” is currently scheduled to wrap in Chicago on April 26. [Chicago Sun-Times]

5. A Chicago grad student is nearly done running every block of the city

Joabe Bayer Barbosa set out to become the first person to run every block in Chicago, and 1,979 streets later, he’s almost done. As my colleague Marie Mendoza reports for WBEZ, Barbosa has completed 80% of the city’s public streets and plans to finish the rest by early spring.

Barbosa is from London and a clinical psychology doctoral student at Roosevelt University. He got into running as a way to recover after a mountain hiking accident and took on this feat in August 2024. But he doesn’t consider himself a fan of running.

“I think running is miserable,” he said. “Training for marathons, running the same route every day. I think that’s so boring.”

What he does enjoy is the different places running takes him. He documents everything on Instagram and Tik Tok, from the neighborhoods he’s in and the people he meets to how safe it is to run in Chicago. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• Congress adjourned for a weeklong recess despite not reaching a deal to fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [New York Times]
• Team USA’s Ilia Malinin, widely considered the best figure skater of this generation, will go for gold during tonight’s men’s free skate at the Winter Olympics. [AP]
• Early voting in the Illinois primary election has kicked off in the city of Chicago. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• Chicago’s south suburbs will begin receiving Amazon drone deliveries this summer. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

Three weeks before the “Heated Rivalry” sports romance premiered on HBO Max and generated breathless buzz worldwide, K.C. Carmichael published her second novel, “The Kennedy Rule.” It just so happens to follow two professional male athletes. Who play on rival hockey teams. And fall in love.

Unintentionally following the same beats as a hit TV show has yielded a boost in book sales for the Chicago author.

Based on the “Game Changers” novel series by Rachel Reid, “Heated Rivalry” takes place in Canada, while “The Kennedy Rule” (Storm Publishing) focuses on U.S. players during the Winter Olympics.

There is growing demand for such sports romances, and Chicago, home to several iconic professional teams, is producing an increasing number of authors willing to write them. Novelists are writing everything from hot hockey stories to steamy football fantasies, my colleague Erica Thompson reports. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Tell me something good …

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I’m wondering, what is your favorite first-date spot in the Chicago area?

Ronald writes:

“The perfect place for a first date was the schoolyard at Henry D. Lloyd Elementary School. I bought my future wife a bottle of pop and a bag of chips from the candy store that was across the street from the school and we sat on the swings and awkwardly ate the chips while trying not to talk with food in our mouth (me anyway) or spit while we talked. I was 15 years old and my girlfriend (now wife) was 13 years old. That was 46 years and 11 months ago.”

Thanks for all the responses this week! It was great hearing from everyone.