THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Bears...Making Chicago safer...More on the church abuse investigation
June 5, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
We may be a touch short on content this morning. There was a bit of a shortage of political content this weekend, but there was plenty of Taylor Swift coverage.
Just a quick programming note: regular newsletters Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. We’ll be headed out of town after close of business Thursday and won’t return until the 17th. We’ll be back at it Monday the 19th.
The Governor is in Peoria at 10 and Quincy at 1:30 pitching his budget successes.
Don’t forget, all of our newsletter content is now behind the paywall, so the only way you get access is by joining the ranks of our paid subscribers. You can buy a yearly or monthly subscription or get a discount in your organization by buying a group subscription. Just click below or drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets, but know good journalism isn’t free)
Naperville Bears? Team exploring move to the western suburb, fearing potential Arlington Heights stadium is ‘at risk’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
The city of Naperville is launching its own bid to try to lure the Chicago Bears to the sprawling western suburb — with the team on Friday admitting a stadium in Arlington Heights is no longer its “singular focus.”
The new competing proposal comes as talks with Arlington Heights have stalled amid disagreements between the team and surrounding suburbs about taxing and school districts.
Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli on May 24 sent the Bears a letter, asking the team to meet and discuss available properties in the west suburb, according to a copy of the letter provided to the Sun-Times by the city of Naperville.
The Bears met with Wehrli in Naperville on Friday — and the team indicated it is open to entertaining proposals outside of the Arlington Heights site.
Bears spokesman Scott Hagel on Friday said the Arlington Heights stadium is “at risk,” citing the property’s tax assessment and a recent settlement with Churchill Downs, which they believe “fails to reflect the property is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state.”
“We will continue the ongoing demolition activity and work toward a path forward in Arlington Heights, but it is no longer our singular focus,” Hagel said in a statement. “It is our responsibility to listen to other municipalities in Chicagoland about potential locations that can deliver on this transformational opportunity for our fans, our club and the State of Illinois.”
Naperville spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said Wehrli reached out to the Bears last week “to introduce Naperville as a thriving community with multiple opportunities for business investment.”
If this isn’t a move to scare Arlington Heights taxing bodies into submission, I don’t know what is.
Related: Naperville wooing Bears, who say they're no longer solely focused on Arlington Heights (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Editorial: Naperville’s entry in Bears stadium sweepstakes how much remains to be done (Daily Herald)
Opinion: Jim O'Donnell: Have Kevin Warren and the Bears found their golden crowbar in Naperville? (Daily Herald)
Civic Committee's prescription for crime is long on investment, short on cops (Crain’s Chicago Business)
An organization that represents Chicago’s largest companies is pledging to raise tens of millions of dollars and hire thousands of at-risk individuals in a bid to finally curb the epidemic of street crime that has afflicted the city for decades.
In a statement and series of interviews, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club said its goal is nothing short of making Chicago the safest big city in America, cutting the number of homicides by 75% over the next decade and slashing shootings by even more. To get there, it proposes a major expansion of violence intervention programs and investments in long-neglected neighborhoods — both hallmarks of Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson.
But the group’s five-point program is notably silent on the volatile question of whether Chicago has enough police, a huge subject of recent debate. And it virtually ignores other key players in the city’s crime picture, notably the Cook County State’s Attorney and Cook County Circuit Court, both of which frequently were blamed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot for letting too many criminals go free.
In an interview, industrialist Jim Crown, who heads the committee’s Public Safety Task Force, which formulated the plan, said the group spent many months talking to law enforcement officials, researchers, activists in other cities and both Johnson and his acting police superintendent.
Kwame Raoul named 451 Catholic priests and brothers in report on clergy sex abuse. Why wasn’t this ex-Augustinian priest on his list?’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
John D. Murphy, a former Catholic priest and member of the Augustinian religious order in the Chicago area, was accused in lawsuits two decades ago of sexually assaulting numerous children.
More than a dozen accusers ended up settling legal claims with the Augustinians — who oversee St. Rita High School on the Southwest Side and Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox — and the Archdiocese of Chicago over accusations against Murphy, according to interviews and records.
So why isn’t Murphy included among the 451 Catholic priests and brothers named a week and a half ago by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a massive report that found the archdiocese and the rest of the Catholic church hierarchy in Illinois vastly underreported clergy members’ sexual abuse of children?
The attorney general’s office, which found nearly 2,000 child victims in Illinois by Catholic priests and brothers, won’t discuss why.
Unlike some other Catholic orders, the Augustinians — whose stated aim is, in part, to “help the restless find happiness in God” — have not made public a list of its clergy members deemed to have faced credible accusations of child rape.
That’s despite Cardinal Blase Cupich having demanded for several years that Catholic orders — which are semi-autonomous but must seek the cardinal’s approval to operate in the archdiocese, his geographic territory — come clean to him about all accusations against their members of sexual abuse.
Murphy is not on the public list of predator clergy maintained by the archdiocese, which covers Cook and Lake counties.
That’s even though the general counsel for the archdiocese, attorney James Geoly, represented the church in those long-ago lawsuits.
Related: How the Peoria diocese 'inexplicably failed' to fully address sex abuse under former bishop (Peoria Journal Star)
Details on the unthinkable: Inside a scathing report on sex abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria (Peoria Journal Star)
The list of 51 Peoria Catholic Diocese clergy named in a 2023 report on child sex abuse (Peoria Journal Star)
SOME TOP LINKS FROM LAST WEEK
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Trial begins for businessman charged in bribery scheme that brought down former lawmaker Luis Arroyo (Chicago Sun-Times)
Former high-ranking Cook County official faces federal criminal case (WBEZ)
City of Springfield cited for refusal to cover gender-affirming care (Illinois Times)
State board of education looking for new providers in preschool ‘deserts’ (Capitol News Illinois)
New laws provide more benefits for noncitizens (Illinois Times)
Editorial: Law chokes off a venue for citizens (Decatur Herald & Review)
Opinion: Geography needn’t be a barrier to access state court system (Shaw Media)
Editorial: State budget process done; let's see how it plays out (Champaign News-Gazette)
Editorial: Drones and the price of liberty (Decatur Herald & Review)
McLaughlin: Illinois needs a business climate change (Daily Herald)
Vallas: By failing to extend the Invest in Kids Act, Illinois is moving to eradicate parental choice (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: The Supreme Court just fired a shot at how Illinois handles delinquent property taxes (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Metro Chicago is blessed with Lake Michigan water. Why can’t politicians agree on how to share it? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: The CTA is overdue for an overhaul (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Opinion: Influx of migrants in Chicago gives us an opportunity more than it creates a crisis (Chicago Sun-Times)
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