Riot Fest and the debate over public parks

Plus, some relief at the gas pump. Here's what you need to know today.

Thursday, August 11, 2022 Today's Rundown is brought to you by WBEZ members and   by Hunter Clauss   Hey there! It’s Thursday, and I’m sick as a dog today. But in these trying times, I turn to the immortal words of “Macho Man” Randy Savage to get me through the day. Here’s what you need to know. 1. West Side residents want the Riot Fest music festival to leave Douglass Park   The debate over whether public parks should be used for private musical festivals has escalated and may be reaching a tipping point on the West Side. Community groups are asking music artists to pull out of next month’s Riot Fest after a tense meeting with residents and festival organizers, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. During that meeting, a man who said he represented Riot Fest offended residents by saying they needed to understand “pure English” as he took questions, according to the Chicago Reader. Riot Fest said in a statement that that meeting was not authorized and the contractor who made the offensive remark has resigned. [Chicago Sun-Times] 2. Pritzker says Bailey owes an apology to Holocaust survivors for an ‘offensive’ comparison to abortion   Gov. JB Pritzker said GOP rival Darren Bailey must apologize to Holocaust survivors for saying the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II can’t compare to the deaths from abortion, reports Tina Sfondeles at the Chicago Sun-Times. The governor’s comments come a day after Bailey claimed leaders in the Jewish community — including “all the people at the Chabads that we met with and the Jewish rabbis” — said he’s “actually right” to compare the Holocaust to abortion. Because of that, Bailey said he doesn’t think he needs to apologize.  But Rabbi Avraham Kagan, director of government affairs for Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, told the Sun-Times, “We don’t know who he [Bailey] met with, and his comments do not reflect our position.” [Sun-Times] 3. So Chicago doesn’t have any federal funds it can use for the monkeypox outbreak   That’s according to Dr. Allison Arwady, who is urging the Biden administration and Congress to allow more flexibility in how local health departments can spend federal funds. For example, Arwady said she can’t dip into unused COVID-19 funds to tackle monkeypox, which has been declared a public health emergency in Illinois and across the nation. “We’ve not been able to use our unspent COVID funds to address the MPV outbreak. We’ve not received a single dollar (for the monkeypox virus),” Arwady said. “We actually don’t need significantly more money. But we need flexibility to use the funding that we have right now to spend on MPV.” [Chicago Tribune] In Chicago, a total of 584 confirmed cases have been reported, according to the city’s Department of Public Health. Thirty people have been hospitalized, but there have been no deaths. [CDPH] 4. The national average for a gallon of gas is below $4 for the first time since March   The national average price of regular gas dropped to $3.99 per gallon today, down significantly from a high of around $5 per gallon in June, according to the American Automobile Association. (In Chicago, the average is a little over $5, according to AAA. For Illinois, it’s $4.33.) As NPR reports, there are four factors that could determine where things go from here. They include the obvious, like the supply and demand of oil. There’s also the war in Ukraine. And then there’s … the weather? “A lot of crude oil enters the U.S. from the Gulf Coast, where it's refined and then distributed,” NPR reports. The network goes on to say, “In 2017, Hurricane Harvey swept across Louisiana and Texas knocking out 20% of U.S. refining capacity.” [NPR] 5. A Chicago bake sale that raises money for people in prison became so popular it had to turn away volunteers   This Saturday, a bake sale in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood is raising money for people who are in Illinois prisons and those who were formerly incarcerated.  Community organizer Eliza Gonring helped plan this week’s bake sale, as well as a previous one in the spring.  And she says the event hit an unexpected milestone: So many bakers signed up, she had to start turning volunteers away, reports Pearse Anderson for WBEZ.  “Everyone has skill sets that are important for movement work,” Gonring said. “Bake sales are a really good way for folks that don’t necessarily think of themselves as able to participate in movement work to identify ways that their specific skill set can plug into stuff.” [WBEZ] SPONSORED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Chicago Centered Series Join us for a series of in-person events featuring University of Chicago and Harris School of Public Policy centers and institutes making an impact in Chicago. Our next event is Thursday, August 25 from 5:15–7 p.m. CDT at Convene, 311 West Monroe. William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor Christopher Berry and Research Professor Justin Marlowe will discuss the Center for Municipal Finance and present findings from their research on how Chicago and many other localities incorporate sustainability and equity into crucial decisions about collecting taxes, spending money, and planning for their financial futures. Learn more and register here. Here's what else is happening The Department of Justice has asked a federal court to unseal the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. [NPR] The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the whole planet, according to new research. [NPR] Illinois workers would see a boost in wages if a proposed constitutional amendment passes, a study finds. [WBEZ] Drag queens are helping Alaska voters understand rank voting. [AP]    Sasha's Pick In Secret Northwest Indiana, Joseph Pete explores the weird and wonderful in the Hoosier State — from Scottish castles and shipwrecks to singing porta potties and pierogi fests. As you plan out your weekend, consider paying a visit to the hidden Rust Belt gem. [WBEZ Reset] — Sasha-Ann Simons, host of Reset Oh, and one more thing... The Black Women’s Expo is this week, and tomorrow you can see my boss’s boss speak at the annual event.  (Feel free to put a good word in for me if you’re going because I’m totally not finishing my performance review by the end of this week.) WBEZ’s Tracy Brown is the first Black chief content officer of the largest nonprofit newsroom in the country. She’ll be sharing a stage with the Chicago Sun-Times's Nykia Wright, the first Black CEO of a major news organization, and they’ll share their insights on leadership as “firsts.” [Chicago Sun-Times] Tell me something good The new school year is right around the corner. What’s one of your fondest school memories?  Jennifer writes:  “I am beginning my 25th year as a CPS art and yoga teacher and my fondest memories have to be the 100 plus field trips on which my students and I have gone. During my time at an elementary school, I took each grade on the South Shore to see the mask exhibition at the Field Museum and went to the chess pavilion at North Avenue beach and saw Jordan at the Max with a group of 7th graders during a summer intervention program.    “Some of my favorites from my years of teaching high school include: singing on stage at the House of Blues, the Takashi Murakami exhibition at MCA on my birthday, practicing yoga on the deck overlooking the pond at Lincoln Park Zoo, and going to Milwaukee to practice yoga in a studio and seeing the amazing Kehinde Wiley pieces at the Milwaukee Art Museum.” Feel free to email or tweet me, and your responses 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 ©Chicago Public Media Inc 848 East Grand Ave, Navy Pier Chicago, IL 60611 View in Browser | Sign Up for Newsletters | Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy