Unpredictable and pricy spring break travel: The Rundown
Good afternoon! Happy Friday and Spring Equinox, and Eid Mubarak! The season’s first weekend will feature temperatures above 60 degrees. Here’s what you need to know today.
The spring break travel period is usually one of the busiest. But this year could be more chaotic because of spiking gas prices and airport security wait times as Transportation Security Administration employees work without pay due during a partial government shutdown.
That could be compounded by a potential record number of people taking to the skies, David Struett reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
More than 3.76 million passengers are expected to pass through Chicago’s airports, O’Hare and Midway, during the period of March 19-30, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
O’Hare, which has seen periodic long security lines in recent days, was preparing for 13% more passengers than last year’s spring break. Thursday was spring break’s busiest travel day at O’Hare, with an estimated 296,000 passengers passing through O’Hare’s gates, according to the Aviation Department.
Airlines for America said it is worried travelers could be used as a political football in the current government shutdown as Congress fails to fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which funds the TSA. [Chicago Sun-Times]
One way you could avoid airport chaos: a road trip, such as one that visits these Midwest college towns. [WBEZ]
2. The Chicago Park District paid more than $2 million to a ‘sexually exploited’ lifeguard
The toxic workplace culture that once festered at Oak Street Beach led the Chicago Park District to pay $2.15 million to a female former lifeguard there — bringing the total legal tab for the sexual misconduct scandal at the city’s public beaches and pools to more than $8.7 million.
Misconduct in the latest case included “grooming, exploitation and sexual assault” by park district supervisors that began when the plaintiff was still a minor, according to court records.
As my colleague Dan Mihalopoulos writes, the settlement is the seventh legal payout to a former lifeguard since WBEZ first reported in 2021 on accusations of sexual abuse in the park district’s aquatics department.
Asked about the settlement with the unidentified “Jane Doe” plaintiff, a parks spokeswoman said the agency “considers multiple factors before reaching a settlement agreement and believes the payment is fair and in the best interest of the district.” There were no pending court cases or unresolved out-of-court claims related to the scandal.
A spokeswoman for the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, which represented the plaintiff, won the biggest of seven settlements related to the lifeguard-abuse scandal for another client. That litigation ended two years ago, with the park district paying $4 million to a woman over accusations of abuse by a lifeguard supervisor at Humboldt Park. [WBEZ]
If the White House encouraged Chicago’s U.S. attorney’s office in writing to bring a conspiracy indictment against six immigration protesters last fall, defense attorneys should be allowed to see it, a prosecutor agreed yesterday.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan said he didn’t expect to find anything related to the case against the so-called “Broadview Six,” my colleague Jon Seidel reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
“To my knowledge — I’m not saying that I know for sure — but my understanding is there is no such communication,” Hogan told U.S. District Judge April Perry. “Certainly, [there] was none before the indictment.”
Hogan also confirmed for the judge that prosecutors still expect to take four of the original six defendants to trial. The feds last week dropped charges against musician Joselyn Walsh and former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp.
Still charged are former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt and Andre Martin, a member of Abughazaleh’s campaign staff. They’re all set for trial May 26. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Honore Properties and Peerless Development’s $102 million project at 1415 N. Dayton St. would be 28 stories and bring 340 apartments to the southern edge of Lincoln Park, across from Goose Island and the Salt Shed.
It’s an area where taller buildings are being pitched, bKL Architecture principal Angela Spadoni told the Chicago Sun-Times. The City Council has already approved a 37-story residential tower nearby at 1565 N. Clybourn Ave. There’s also a 27-story condo building planned at 860 W. Blackhawk St.
Spadoni, whose firm designed the Dayton Street project, said the intersection of Halsted Street and North Avenue is “very vibrant,” and the abundant transportation options nearby makes it an ideal site for apartments. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Singer Alynda Segarra traded New Orleans for Chicago in 2024 and now has a new project recorded live at the Old Town School of Folk Music, my colleague Courtney Kueppers reports.
Produced by Chicago’s Johnny Wilson, it includes the entirety of the critically acclaimed record “The Past Is Still Alive,” largely inspired by Segarra’s time riding freight rails across the country as a teenager. The musician ultimately settled in New Orleans, a city that provided inspiration for much of Hurray for the Riff Raff’s catalog. But after nearly 20 years there, Segarra said, “I’d been really needing to make a change in my life.” So, they left the Big Easy for Chicago.
Segarra has found their people in the Midwest, where the seasons brought inspiration for new work. “I’ve been writing. I’m really grateful to have a winter,” they said. “Maybe in two years, I won’t say that, but I have been really grateful to have time to stay home and be cozy and really get into the craft of songwriting.” [WBEZ]
Here’s what else is happening
- Planned Parenthood of Illinois agreed to pay $500,000 to end a federal investigation of the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. [NPR]
- Martial arts star Chuck Norris died at 86. [NPR]
- Science-fiction blockbuster “Project Hail Mary” opens in theaters this weekend. [AP]
- Leaders at a Southwest Side elementary school named for Cesar Chavez moved to potentially rename the school. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Oh, and one more thing …
I love ending the week with baby animal news.
Just in time for spring, Lincoln Park Zoo welcomed a baby eastern black rhinoceros yesterday, helping add to the critically endangered species’ population as part of a specialized breeding program.
The zoo’s 20-year-old rhino Kapuki gave birth to the female calf, which weighed about 60 pounds and took her first steps just an hour and a half later.
Curator Cassy Kutilek told the Chicago Sun-Times the zoo was looking forward to watching the calf develop and snack on alfalfa hay and watermelon — her mom’s favorite.
You can see an adorable photo and video in the link. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Tell me something good …
What’s something you would tell your younger self?
Kate writes:
“The very best advice I ever got from my mother (and she was smart and savvy) was, ‘Begin as you mean to go on.’ Wow, has that helped to clarify situations! Family, work, community. Thanks mom, miss you!”
Thanks for all the responses this week! It was great hearing from everyone.
Discussion in the ATmosphere