Good morning, Chicago.
During an afternoon stroll around Morton Arboretum, Maria Malayter’s Apple Watch buzzed twice with an unusual notification. The screen warned her of a “loud environment” with sound levels reaching 90 decibels as cicadas chorused on the treetops.
Exposure to such levels for over 30 minutes can cause permanent hearing damage, hence the watch notification. Yet Malayter, and many others, have visited the arboretum in recent weeks seeking the cicada songs, and a reminder of childhood.
“Cicada concert!” she said gleefully. “And it’s a loud day, I heard.”
The mating calls, which in unison can reach decibels comparable to a jet engine or lawnmower, are perhaps one of the insects’ most recognizable features. For some, it’s overwhelming, and annoying.
But others find the din from this spring’s historic emergence to be a soothing lullaby, an offbeat jam session or a scientific peculiarity worth traveling to hear firsthand. From downstate Illinois to Lake County, enthusiasts, artists and researchers have spread out far and wide to immerse themselves in the intense and diverse songs of cicadas.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Adriana Pérez and Rebecca Johnson.
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Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip sit at a makeshift tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Rifts seem to appear between Israel’s political and military leadership over conduct of the Gaza war
The Israeli army’s chief spokesman on Wednesday appeared to question the stated goal of destroying the Hamas in Gaza in a rare public rift between the country’s political and military leadership.
Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy speaks at the Bank Your Vote Gala at the Westin hotel, Feb. 9, 2024, in Rosemont. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Republican Chairman Don Tracy resigns just weeks before RNC in Milwaukee
Embattled state GOP Chairman Don Tracy resigned yesterday, ending his more than three-year run just weeks before Republicans gather in nearby Milwaukee to renominate former President Donald Trump at their national convention.
Tracy’s resignation comes just two days after Illinois Republican leaders deposed Mark Shaw of Lake Forest as the state GOP’s vice chair over controversies stemming from his unsuccessful effort at last month’s state convention to leverage his party position and role as a paid Trump adviser into the post of Republican National Committeeman from Illinois.
People watch from West Chicago Avenue as a building burns in the 2800 block of West Grand Avenue in Chicago on June 19, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Second extra-alarm fire hits West Side for in as many days as heat wave holds
Despite the alarm rising to a 3-11, triggering one of the highest department responses for manpower, the blaze was controlled by the early evening as tower trucks poured water into the flaming structure.
Ethiopia Jackson, right, hugs Samiram Dyson, 11, both residents of the Oakley Square apartment complex on June 18, 2024, near the scene where 7-year-old Jai’mani Amir Rivera was shot and killed. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)
The loss of another Chicago child to gun violence renews calls for justice as his family gathers
Dozens of people gathered on the Near West Side Wednesday to remember and mourn 7-year-old Jai’Mani Amir Rivera, who was fatally shot inside the gates of the apartment complex where he had been going to visit a friend.
“We didn’t lose a gang member on the streets, we lost a seven-year-old kid,” said Jai’Mani’s aunt Vanessa Rivera. “The person that took my nephew’s life is going to pay for that.”
Howard Ray’s father, Howard Ray Sr., left, and his wife, Mary, get a signature from Laighton Scott, of Maywood, on June 19, 2024, in Hillside on a petition to put a reparations referendum on the ballot. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
One man’s unwavering quest for reparations
Below the blazing sun on Juneteenth, Howard Ray flagged down cars stopped at a red light by a corner in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. He stepped into the street and waved, clipboard in hand.
“We’re working on a petition,” he started.
A few rolled down their windows, intrigued. Most nodded politely before driving away.
It’s the reality for a somewhat radical campaign — a petition to end all property taxes for Chicagoans descended from enslaved Africans. Ahead looms an Aug. 5 deadline to collect 100,000 signatures, which would place the referendum on the ballot. As of Wednesday, he’s only amassed a few hundred.
Former White Sox player Micah Johnson leads a creative session with members of the White Sox ACE program to collect inspiration and creative elements to design custom artwork in celebration of Juneteenth. (Kimberly Marroquin/Chicago White Sox)
Former White Sox player Micah Johnson aims to inspire in Juneteenth artwork collaboration with ACE players
Micah Johnson connected with members of the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program to create commemorative artwork in honor of Juneteenth. Johnson said he took the young players’ ideas and morphed them into a body of work.
Defensive lineman Austin Booker stretches during Bears rookie minicamp at Halas Hall on May 11, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
‘He’s a skinny guy in a big guy’s body.’ Get to know Chicago Bears rookie Austin Booker.
As defensive lineman Austin Booker settled in with the Bears at organized team activities in May, Onatolu took some time to talk with the Tribune about Booker’s growth in his lone season with the Jayhawks and what he will bring to the Bears.
Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan sits on the bench before the start of the game against the Warriors at the United Center on Jan. 12, 2024. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Bulls are back on the clock with DeMar DeRozan as they chase a free-agency deal
There used to be a slight pause after the playoffs ended and before free agency began. But the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement lengthened the runway for teams, allowing them to begin negotiations with their own free agents the day after the last game of the NBA Finals. Previously, this wasn’t allowed until June 30, if teams were playing by the books. That meant the Bulls gained more than two weeks of a negotiation period with their top offseason target.
Martha Stewart attends the Footwear News Achievement Awards at Cipriani South Street on Nov. 29, 2023, in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
Celebrity brushes with the law are not new in the Hamptons. Ask Billy Joel and Martha Stewart
Justin Timberlake is not the first celebrity to get arrested in the Hamptons. The beach communities on the eastern end of New York’s Long Island are popular with the rich and famous, and others have gotten into trouble there, much of it vehicular. Here are a few examples.
From left: Robson Green as Geordie Keating and Rishi Nair as Alphy Kottaram in Season 9 of “Granchester.” (PBS/Masterpiece)
‘Granchester’ review: A new vicar makes the longrunning murder mystery series watchable again
As a genre, the cozy murder mystery avoids graphic violence in favor of something less grisly despite the crime at hand: The careful piecing together of a puzzle. A subgenre particular to England somehow involves the clergy in all this sleuthing. “Grantchester” (on PBS Masterpiece) pairs a vicar and a police detective, and like the similarly-themed UK imports “Father Brown” and “Sister Boniface,” these shows are all set in the mid-20th century. Why? Beats me. Now in its ninth season, “Grantchester” boasts a new vicar. This is very good news, writes Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz.
Jodie Comer as Kathy and Austin Butler as Benny in director Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders.” (Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features)
‘The Bikeriders’ review: Real Illinois motorcycle club becomes a story of uneasy riders
Making a movie inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photojournalism book “The Bikeriders” offers a filmmaker everything except a sure thing.
A one-time member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, founded in suburban McCook, photographer and (later) documentary filmmaker Lyon turned the aesthetic notion of Robert Frank’s “The Americans” outside in, capturing images — and in Lyon’s case, tape-recorded anecdotes converted to text accompanying the photos — not as a penetrating outsider but a watchful insider. The book remains a key collection of Chicago-area images, faces, revelry, desolation, two-lane roads and one-way fate. You can hear the engines even on the page.
From this book, working in a spirit of homage, writer-director Jeff Nichols has made a cool, absorbing feature that goes its own way, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips.
Chicago Tribune , 2024-06-20 13:34:15
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