Good morning, Chicago.
Dolton has closed on the purchase of Pope Leo XIV’s boyhood home in the village, but what will happen with the modest brick building is up in the air.
The village closed this week on the home, 212 E. 141st Place, paying $375,000, including commission fees, Mayor Jason House said yesterday. House said a steering committee is being organized to figure out how best to use the property. “We will then lay out the plans to trustees and the community,” the mayor said.
And here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including Ford recalling over 850,000 cars, several top CPS staffers leave the district and a former Cubs manager passing.
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Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Europe unveils a deal for more food and fuel for Gaza, while an Israeli strike kills 15, including 10 children, outside a medical clinic
European officials reached a new deal with Israel to allow desperately needed food and fuel into Gaza, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said yesterday, hours after an Israeli airstrike killed 15 people, including 10 children, waiting for help outside a medical clinic.
The children’s deaths drew outrage from humanitarian groups even as Israel allowed the first delivery of fuel to Gaza in more than four months, though still less than a day’s supply, according to the United Nations.
A Ford logo is on the tailgate of a pick-up truck and on a Ford dealership sign in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
Ford recalls over 850,000 cars in the US due to potential fuel pump failure
The recall covers a wide range of Ford and Lincoln-branded vehicles made in recent model years. That includes certain Ford Broncos, Explorers and F-150s, as well as Lincoln Aviators and Navigators, documents published this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration note.
People walk past Chicago Public Schools headquarters on W. Madison Street in Chicago on July 10, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Several top CPS staffers leave the district following departure of former CEO Pedro Martinez
Several top Chicago Public Schools staff members have left the district following the departure of former schools chief Pedro Martinez.
The five exiting officials include the district’s chiefs of information technology, nutrition and multilingual education. The district’s general counsel also left, as did the former CEO’s chief of staff. Martinez’s last day as district CEO was June 18.
Lobbyist Michael McClain leaves the Dirksen Courthouse after Michael Madigan was convicted of bribery conspiracy on Feb. 12, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)
‘McClain’s plan was illegal to its core’: Feds want nearly 6 years in prison for ‘stunning’ bribery scheme by former Madigan confidant
Federal prosecutors yesterday asked for nearly six years in prison for former ComEd lobbyist Michael McClain, whose unique position as a confidant to then-House Speaker Michael Madigan was at the center of what they say was a “stunning” scheme to win the speaker’s assistance with the utility’s legislation in Springfield.
“McClain’s plan was illegal to its core,” prosecutors wrote in their 48-page sentencing filing. “In securing benefits for both Madigan and ComEd, McClain corrupted the legislative process and the internal control processes of a large, regulated utility … McClain’s repeated overstepping of legal lines in this case is stunning.”
Superintendent Dr. Duane Meighan (left) and President Sharon Mack (right) discuss parent concerns at a Country Club Hills School District 160 boarding meeting. The parents have concerns about district spending and conditions in the schools. The meeting took place on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (John Smierciak / for the Daily Southtown)
Country Club Hills Superintendent Duane Meighan suspended after parents raise spending concerns
As Country Club Hills District 160 reckons with board members’ big spending on travel, the district’s board approved personnel changes and voted to suspend its superintendent Tuesday.
While the board approved the resignations of Southwood Middle School Principal Phillip Bazile and assistant principals last month, Tuesday’s emergency meeting allowed them to appoint interim replacements and suspend Superintendent Duane Meighan for 10 days at the end of the month, district parent Sequoia Williams said.
Cubs manager Lee Elia looks on during a loss to the Mets on Aug. 4, 1982, at Wrigley Field. (Frank Hanes/Chicago Tribune)
Former manager Lee Elia, whose rant against Chicago Cubs fans became part of team lore, dies at 87
Like many Chicago Cubs managers who tried and failed to end the team’s legendary championship drought, Lee Elia didn’t last too long in his job.
Elia managed 285 games for the Cubs from 1982-83, going 127-158 before general manager Dallas Green fired him during the ’83 season.
But Elia, who died Wednesday at age 87, will always remain a significant part of Cubs lore, thanks to a rant for the ages that’s celebrated every April 29, the date of his 1983 tirade against what he called the “so-called Cubs fans.”
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Camp Randall Stadium is seen during a game between Wisconsin and Miami of Ohio on Sept. 12, 2015, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The new college sports agency is rejecting some NIL deals with donor-backed collectives
The new agency in charge of regulating name, image and likeness deals in college sports sent a letter to schools yesterday saying it had rejected deals between players and donor-backed collectives formed over the past several years to funnel money to athletes or their schools.
Those arrangements hold no “valid business purpose,” the memo said, and don’t adhere to rules that call for outside NIL deals to be between players and companies that provide goods or services to the general public for profit.
Chucho Valdés and Arturo Sandoval of the Latin jazz band Irakere perform at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park on July 9, 2025, as part of the band’s 50th anniversary tour. (Alec Syrvalin Ravinia Festival)
Review: At Ravinia Festival, ‘Irakere 50’ is a joyous musical reunion
The thing about the Martin Theatre is there’s not quite enough room to dance.
That didn’t stop audiences from trying anyway on Wednesday, when Irakere, the storied Cuban band, visited Ravinia for its ongoing 50-year anniversary celebrations. It was a dance-worthy occasion, times three, with original Irakere members Chucho Valdés, Arturo Sandoval and Paquito d’Rivera — now all Latin jazz titans in their own rights — reunited onstage.
An auction officer carries the original Birkin bag created by Hermès for Jane Birkin in 1984, prior to its auction Thursday, July 10, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Jane Birkin’s original Hermès bag sells at auction for whopping 8.6 million euros
Sketched out on an air sickness bag, the first Birkin handbag — the prototype for fashion’s must-have accessory — sold for a staggering 8.6 million euros ($10.1 million), including fees, yesterday in Paris to become the second most valuable fashion item ever sold at auction.
The winning bid of 7 million euros drew gasps and applause from the audience. The price crushed the previous auction record for a handbag — $513,040 paid in 2021 for a Hermès White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28.
Larry David appears at the premiere of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in Los Angeles on Oct. 19, 2021. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Larry David teams with the Obamas for HBO US history sketch show for the nation’s 250th
The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator and “Seinfeld” co-creator will act as executive producer, writer and star of the limited series consisting of six half-hour episodes, produced by the Obamas’ company, Higher Ground.
The show marks the 78-year-old David’s return to HBO just over a year after the end of the 12th and final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”