The most violent weekend so far this year

Plus, Chicago's basic income program is taking applications. Here's what you need to know today.

To view this email as a web page, click here. Today's Rundown is brought to you by WBEZ members and   by Hunter Clauss   Good afternoon! It’s Monday, and this was totally me when I watched “The Batman.” Here’s what you need to know today. 1. At least seven people were killed and 37 others wounded in weekend violence in Chicago   The city suffered its most violent weekend so far this year in what proved to be “a major stumbling block” in its efforts to curb shootings, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The warm weekend had been seen as an early test of the city’s anti-violence strategies ahead of the summer, when a rise in temperatures typically coincides with a flare-up in shootings.  Police Superintendent David Brown last week announced a new strategy focusing on 55 police beats that account for half of the city’s violence, with an emphasis on “beat integrity” and community-based policing. It is a shift away from citywide units that Brown initially built up. As the Sun-Times reports, “There hasn’t been a weekend without a deadly shooting in Chicago since January.” [Sun-Times] Meanwhile, Chicago is not the only major city cracking down on crime committed on public trains and buses. [New York Times] 2. Duckworth pushed back after Biden rejected her for VP over concerns about her Thailand birth, according to a new book   Sen. Tammy Duckworth for a moment looked like a sure thing in Joe Biden’s search for a running mate in the 2020 presidential election, according to This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, out May 3.  But Biden’s lawyers were worried the Trump campaign and its allies would go to court to claim she was not a “natural-born citizen.”  When Biden raised the issue, Duckworth pushed back, saying, “I’ve beaten every a--hole who’s come after me with that,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which obtained a copy of the book. This Will Not Pass also mentions that Mayor Lori Lightfoot “grew so frustrated with the pressure to slash police spending that she told fellow mayors she had threatened to pull the cops entirely out of two aldermanic districts where lawmakers were hectoring her administration with demands to defund the police... . In her telling, the left-wing officials backed down quickly.” [Sun-Times] 3. Chicago’s guaranteed income program is now taking applications   The $31.5 million program, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, aims to dole out $500 monthly cash payments — no strings attached — to 5,000 struggling Chicago households for a year.  Cheryse Singleton-Nobles, who owns a child care business, says she is planning on applying for the program, known formally as the Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot. She said it takes about $6,000 a month to keep the day care’s doors open, and that’s about all she’s bringing in these day “I don’t have the option of paying myself or anything like that, because I want to keep our doors open because I know our families need us,” she said. As many as 790,000 Chicago residents could be eligible for the program, according to census data prepared by the University of Minnesota. About 40% of those people are Black, 30% are Latino, 20% are white and 7% are Asian or Pacific Islanders, according to the analysis. [WBEZ] 4. Russia renews its attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure after U.S. officials make a secret trip to Kyiv   Russia today struck rail and fuel installations with missiles just hours after top U.S. officials made a secret visit by train to Ukraine’s capital.  The risky trip included Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday. “When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” Blinken said.  The Associated Press reports that Washington has approved a $165 million sale of non-U.S. ammunition along with more than $300 million in financing to buy more supplies.  Meanwhile, Britain said it believes 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began two months ago. Ukrainian officials have estimated that up to 3,000 of their troops had been killed as of mid-April. [AP] 5. How Twitter could change under Elon Musk   By now you’ve probably heard that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, bought Twitter today for about $44 billion “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement announcing the deal.  So what would Twitter look like under Musk? The New York Times looks at ways the social media company could change if the deal goes through. Among them is a possible pull back on content moderators, whom Musk has criticized as going too far. And Musk’s free speech comments raise questions about whether he’ll allow former President Donald Trump back on the platform.  Trump is trying to get his own social platform, Truth Social, off the ground, but it has struggled to attract users. That could become worse if Musk indeed changes how content is moderated on Twitter. [NYT] SPONSORED BY WTTW NEW SEASON – CHICAGO STORIES The Pillsbury Dough Boy. The Iroquois Theatre. Mayor Jane Byrne. The Father of Gospel. These iconic figures and places have fascinating stories behind them. Fridays at 8 p.m., tune-in to WTTW to watch new episodes of CHICAGO STORIES uncovering the history and breadth of human experience that shaped this great city. Explore new, original content and stream episodes at wttw.com/chicagostories.  Here's what else is happening New York judge today held former President Trump in contempt for failing to turn over documents to the state’s attorney general. [Axios] The U.S. Supreme Court today heard a case involving a football coach who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after public school games. [NPR] Chicago’s City Council began debating where to put the city’s first casino. [WBEZ] Chicago’s family restaurants have a secret weapon during high inflation: parental wisdom. [WBEZ] Oh, and one more thing... Looking for a new job? Yeah, definitely “not me” either, but …  A remote post office in Antarctica is hiring, and the idea of being far away from society is kind of tempting, especially right now.  It’s known as the “Penguin Post Office” and it’s located at Port Lockroy, a British territory. The job’s responsibilities include sorting mail, selling postage stamps — and counting penguins for an environmental study on the impact of visitors. One downside is the living conditions sound, um, not great. For example, you have to share a single bedroom and there’s no flushing toilet. Instead, a camping toilet must be emptied daily. Yeah, I’ll take a pass. [NPR] Tell me something good World Press Freedom Day is coming up on May 3, a day proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for free access to information and ideas around the world. WBEZ is bringing awareness to the importance of a free press this week leading up to the day. But it has me thinking about what great works you enjoy that may not have been created if we didn’t have the constitutional right to free speech? I’ll give you two.  1) Anything created by John Waters. The dude is a living legend who built an empire on epic, dirty jokes. Female Trouble starring the drag queen Divine is an all-time favorite. And 2) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which turned the Cold War into a joke about impotence at a time when schools were conducting duck and cover drills.  Feel free to hit me up, and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week. therundown@wbez.org | @whuntah Thanks for reading and have a nice night! I'll see you tomorrow.  — Hunter Clauss P.S. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to receive The Rundown in your inbox. VIEW OUR BROADCAST SCHEDULE ©Chicago Public Media Inc 848 East Grand Ave, Navy Pier Chicago, IL 60611 Please do not reply to this email. 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